BT380  . G48  1915 
Gesner,  Herbert  M. 

The  life  worth  living 

trp/e  y 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


The  Life  Worth  Living 

OR  THE  RELIGION  OF  CHRIST 

A  Systematic  and  Popular  Exposition  of  the  Greatest 
Religious  Document  the  World  has  ever 
seen,  Commonly  Known  as  the  Ser¬ 
mon  on  the  Moufit 

By  v/ 

HERBERT  MORTIMER  GESNER 

Formerly  Pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Atlantic  City ,  N.f. 


BOSTON:  RICHARD  G.  BADGEiR 

TORONTO:  THE  COPP  CLARK  CO.,  LIMITED 


Copyright,  1915,  by  Herbert  M.  Gesner 


All  Rights  Reserved 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


PREFACE 


This  book,  born  in  fear  and  trembling  and 
brought  forth  with  much  travail  of  spirit,  is  now 
sent  out  into  the  world.  My  one  aim  and  one  de¬ 
sire  has  been  to  know  the  “  Mind  of  the  Master  ” 
and  to  exhibit  the  Religion  of  Jesus  as  he  taught 
it. 

“  As  much  as  in  me  lieth  ”  I  have  sought  to  free 
myself  from  all  theological  bias  and  all  trend  of 
training,  that  I  might  see  “  Jesus  only  ”  and  that 
I  might  hear  the  teachings  which  he  taught. 

While  in  this  book  it  is  “  I  who  speak  and  not 
the  Lord,”  yet  I  say  humbly,  though  confidently, 
that  “  I  think  also  that  I  have  the  Spirit  of  God.” 

My  chief  hope  is,  that  those  into  whose  hands 
this  book  may  come,  and  those  who  may  peruse 
its  pages,  seeking  for  an  answer  to  that  question 
which  confronts  every  thoughtful,  serious  man, 
“  What  is  the  life  worth  living?  ”  and  desiring  to 
know  what  was  the  “  Religion  that  Jesus  Taught  ” 
may  find  in  this  exposition  of  his  own  words  some¬ 
thing  that  shall  help  them  in  their  quest. 

May  he  who  reads  experience  the  joy  and  com¬ 
fort  of  spirit,  which  he  who  wrote  received,  at 

3 


4 


PREFACE 


every  moment,  from  the  first  contemplation  of  the 
plan  to  its  present  imperfect  completion. 

While  I,  like  every  man,  am  greatly  indebted 
to  helps  many  and  to  teachers  many,  whose  names 
cannot  be  here  expressly  acknowledged,  I  wish  to 
recognize  my  particular  indebtedness  to  the  Rev. 
Henry  W.  Maier  of  New  Britain,  Conn.,  who  has 
colabored  with  me,  in  forming  the  general  out¬ 
line  of  most  of  the  chapters  of  this  book,  and  to 
whom  I  am  largely  obligated  for  many  valuable 
suggestions. 


FOREWORD 


How  well  the  artist  understands  the  value  of 
the  view-point!  None  better  than  he  knows  its 
importance  in  the  painting  and  interpreting  of 
pictures.  If  he  can  lead  the  observer  to  that 
place,  point  or  motive,  from  which  he  looks  out 
upon  that  subject  he  seeks  to  portray,  he  has  done 
much  to  quicken  the  sympathy,  assist  the  under¬ 
standing,  and  aid  the  mind  to  the  right  use  of  the 
picture. 

This  value  of  the  view-point  has  suggested  to 
me,  that  a  brief  word,  explanatory  of  how  I  was 
led  to  the  study  of  the  subject  myself,  and  intro¬ 
ductory  to  the  chapters  which  follow,  may  be  of 
practical  use  to  the  reader. 

If  I  can  get  you  clearly  to  understand  the  mo¬ 
tive,  the  purpose,  the  quest,  which  spurred  and 
inspired  me  in  my  study  of  this  subject,  I  shall, 
in  thought,  have  brought  you  to  my  view-point, 
and  thus  will  you  be  enabled  better  to  sympathize 
with,  appreciate,  and  understand  what  I  have  at¬ 
tempted  to  accomplish  in  these  pages. 

While  it  is  often  difficult  to  state  the  origin  of 
an  idea,  I  believe  I  can  safely  say  that  two  in¬ 
fluences  cooperated  to  give  birth  to  this  book. 

5 


6 


FOREWORD 


The  first  was  those  passages  in  the  Gospel  biog¬ 
raphies  of  our  Lord,  which  speak  of  his  preach¬ 
ing,  and  of  his  teaching  the  disciples  and  the  peo¬ 
ple,  where  no  mention  whatever  is  made  of  what 
he  said.  These  passages  are  not  a  few. 

Among  the  many  recorded,  we  read  such  as  the 
following:  “  And  he  was  preaching  in  the  syna¬ 
gogues  of  Galilee,”  “  And  he  sat  down  and  taught 
the  multitudes  out  of  a  boat,”  “  And  he  spake  to 
them  of  the  kingdom  of  God,”  “  And  he  was 
teaching  daily  in  the  temple  ”;  and  concerning  his 
disciples,  it  is  recorded:  “  And  he  sent  them  to 
preach  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  to  heal  the  sick.” 
The  question  arose  in  my  mind,  What  did  he 
preach?  What  did  he  teach?  What  was  his  sys¬ 
tem,  if  he  had  any? 

For  a  long  time  these  queries  had  lain  latent  in 
my  mind,  until,  in  my  course  of  reading,  this 
quotation  from  Lessing,  “  The  Christian  Religion 
has  been  tried  for  eighteen  centuries  and  the  Re¬ 
ligion  of  Christ  remains  to  be  tried,”  again 
brought  the  question  squarely  before  my  view, 
and  again  I  asked,  Where  is  the  Religion  of 
Christ  found?  Where  any  clear  setting  forth  of 
what  he  was  wont  to  preach,  of  what  he  taught 
his  disciples  to  teach?  Where  in  best  and  brief¬ 
est  form  is  his  exhibition  of  those  principles  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God  and  of  heaven,  which  he 


FOREWORD 


7 

would  have  promulgated  and  prevail  upon  the 
earth?  and  that  question  I  sought  to  answer. 

It  was  plain  to  me  that  the  religious  system  of 
Christ  was  not  given  in  the  miracles,  nor  in  the 
parables,  nor  in  the  incidents  of  his  interesting 
life;  these  are  merely  illustrations  and  expres¬ 
sions  of  principles  and  beliefs  already  established 
and  are  themselves  without  coordination  or  sys¬ 
tematic  relation.  Then  the  thought  came  to  me 
that  there  was  one  place  and  only  one  in  the  Gos¬ 
pel  record,  where  a  complete  sermon,  an  entire 
discourse,  a  systematic  and  related  body  of  teach¬ 
ing  was  given;  to  wit,  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

The  more  I  studied  the  matter  the  more  I  be¬ 
came  convinced  that  this  was  the  truth,  that  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  the  heart  and  soul  of 
the  Gospel,  is  the  Gospel,  and  that  miracle,  par¬ 
able  and  occasional  saying,  in  short,  the  life,  are 
but  expressive  and  illustrative  of  what  is  taught 
in  that  greatest,  briefest  system  of  religion  the 
world  has  ever  known. 

I  dare  not  be  so  bold  as  to  say  that  all  that 
Jesus  taught  concerning  the  Kingdom  of  God  is 
contained  in  this  great  sermon,  but  all  that  he 
taught  is  hinted  at,  suggested  in  principle,  fore¬ 
shadowed  in  these  marvelous  words,  even  as  every 
commandment  and  every  law  of  God  is  contained 
in  the  great  law  of  Love.  With  little  doubt  this 


8 


FOREWORD 


Mountain  Sermon  is  the  fruit  of  those  long  years 
of  patient  waiting,  keen  observation,  divine  medi¬ 
tation,  and  heavenly  communion,  before  our  Lord 
entered  upon  his  public  ministry. 

This,  we  believe,  will  be  the  final  conclusion  of 
the  deep  and  thoughtful  student  of  this  remark¬ 
able  discourse. 

It  is  characterized  by  those  elements  of  excel¬ 
lence  which  a  sensitive  and  appreciative  student 
will  recognize  and  must  admire  in  written  or 
spoken  discourse,  and  which  come  only  as  the  re¬ 
sult  of  years  of  painstaking  labor. 

There  is  in  this  sermon  that  sweet  simplicity, 
that  lucidity,  plainness,  and  beauty  of  utterance 
which  bespeak  care. 

The  one  who  will  follow  this  discourse  faith¬ 
fully  will  discover  that  Christ  here  gives  an  ar¬ 
ticulated  body  of  principles  and  not  merely  dis¬ 
jecta  membra  of  precept  and  saying.  This  is  a 
body  of  truth,  a  system  of  thought,  a  coordinated 
setting  forth  of  the  true  religion;  part  is  related 
to  part,  teaching  to  teaching,  with  logical  coher¬ 
ence  and  rational  sequence;  and  the  whole  bears 
to  the  one  end  —  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

But,  above  all,  the  reader  is  impressed  with  its 
practical  character.  It  deals  with  life  —  every 
theme  is  a  theme  of  life;  and  every  principle  is 
applicable  to  man  as  long  as  man  is  man. 


FOREWORD 


9 


In  short,  I  believe  in  this  marvelous  teaching 
he  who  seeks  will  find  the  desideratum  of  the 
heart,  mind  and  spirit  of  every  man  —  a  sound 
Philosophy  for  life,  a  spiritual  Ethic  and  a  prac¬ 
tical  Religion. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  The  Character  Worth  Having  .  .  15 

II  Live  a  Useful  Life . 33 

III  Live  a  Progressive  Life  ....  48 

IVi  Live  a  Peaceable  Life . 67 

V  Live  a  Pure  Life . 82 

VI  Live  a  Truthful  Life . 97 

VII  Live  a  Large  Life . 113 

VIII  Live  the  Perfect  Life . 129 

IX  Live  the  Charitable  Life  .  .  .  .145 

X  Live  the  Prayerful  Life  .  .  .  .161 

XI  Live  the  Self-Denying  Life  .  .  .178 

XII  Live  Free  from  the  Bondage  of  Gold  .  196 

XIII  Live  Free  from  the  Bondage  of  Dou- 

ble-Mindedness . 213 

XIV  Live  Free  from  the  Bondage  of 

Worldly  Care  . . 227 

XV  Live  Free  from  the  Bondage  of  Cen¬ 
soriousness  . 245 

XVI  Live  for  the  Best  Within  You  .  .  262 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVII  Live  Through  the  Power  that  is 

Without  You . 279 

XVIII  Live  for  the  Best  Within  Others  .  293 

XIX  Life’s  Golden  Invitation  ....  308 

XX  Life’s  Needed  Word  of  Warning  and 

Wisdom . 325 

XXI  Life’s  Relation  to  the  Christ  and  His 

Religion . .  .  344 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


The  Life  Worth  Living 


CHAPTER  I 


THE  CHARACTER  WORTH  HAVING 
Matt,  v,  i— 12 

HAT  part  of  the  Gospel,  containing  the 


JL  address  which  Jesus  delivered  in  the  Mount, 
before  the  multitudes  and  his  disciples,  and  re¬ 
corded  in  the  fifth,  sixth  and  seventh  chapters  of 
Matthew,  has  commonly  been  called  the  “  Ser¬ 
mon  on  the  Mount.”  While  this  title  has  the  ad¬ 
vantage  of  being  convenient,  attractive  and  fa¬ 
miliar,  it  is  by  no  means  adequate,  as  a  definition 
or  classification  of  that  remarkable  discourse. 
Says  Austin  Phelps,1  “  The  generic  idea  of  a  ser¬ 
mon  is  that  of  an  oral  address  to  the  popular  mind 
on  religious  truth  contained  in  the  Scriptures,  and 
elaborately  treated  with  a  view  to  persuasion.” 
Now  while  this  discourse  of  Christ  may  be  made 
to  tally  with  this  definition  almost  in  detail,  and 
we  have  our  suspicion  that  the  definition  was  made 
from  a  study  of  this  very  passage,  yet  this  is  the 

1  “  The  Theory  of  Preaching.”  A  Phelps,  p.  28. 

15 


1 6  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


definition  of  a  scholar,  the  product  of  an  analytic 
mind,  and  by  no  means  tallies  with  the  popular 
idea  of  a  sermon. 

The  popular  conception  of  a  sermon,  we  appre¬ 
hend,  is  more  nearly  contained  in  the  definition 
which  the  Standard  Dictionary  gives.  “  A  dis¬ 
course  by  a  clergyman  upon  some  religious  topic 
based  on  a  passage  or  text  of  the  Bible,  and  de¬ 
livered  as  part  of  a  church  service.”  We  believe 
that  this  expresses  the  average  idea  of  a  sermon, 
and  it  is  a  term  far  too  small  to  comprehend  the 
bounds  of  this  exhaustive  discourse.  I  know,  for 
myself,  that  the  conception  of  this  product  of  the 
Divine  Teacher,  as  a  sermon,  has  limited  its  idea 
in  my  mind,  and  has  lessened  its  place  and  pur¬ 
pose,  in  the  Gospel  record.  And  this  is  the  very 
result  we  would  seek  to  avoid.  Viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  God’s  government  of  a  world  of 
moral  and  spiritual  beings,  it  should  more  prop¬ 
erly  be  denominated  the  setting  forth  of  the  Con¬ 
stitution  and  Statutes  of  that  moral  and  spiritual 
system  which  Jesus  so  often  referred  to  as  “  The 
Kingdom  of  God  ”  or  “  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.” 
Viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  man  as  a  religious 
being,  dependent  upon  and  guided  by  a  revelation 
of  the  Divine,  it  is  an  analytic  and  systematic  set¬ 
ting  forth  of  the  Gospel  which  Jesus  preached,  a 
related  exhibition  of  the  Religion  of  Christ.  It 


CHARACTER  WORTH  HAVING  17 


contains  the  foundation  stones  upon  which  the 
life  shall  be  built,  the  mountain  principles  to  which 
the  spirit  of  man  shall  aspire !  It  is  the  center 
and  soul  of  the  Mind  of  the  Master  —  it  is  the 
creed  of  the  Christ;  to  it  all  preaching  of  prophets 
of  the  earlier  time,  all  the  laws  of  the  Jewish  na¬ 
tion,  all  the  experiences  of  Israel’s  history,  con¬ 
verge;  and  from  it  radiate  all  incidents  and  events 
written  in  the  Gospel  story,  all  epistles,  preaching 
and  Acts  of  the  apostles.  Therefore  it  seems  to 
me  that  we  must  have  an  absolutely  larger  con¬ 
ception,  of  this  “  Great  Discourse  ”  of  the  Christ 
in  our  minds,  that  it  may  assume  its  proper  place 
in  our  system  of  thinking,  and  have  its  proper  in¬ 
fluence  in  our  way  of  life.  And  we  believe  that 
a  proper  study  of  its  content  and  meaning  must 
result  in  a  larger  conception  of  the  discourse  it¬ 
self. 

When  Jesus  declared  himself  as  a  prophet  and 
teacher  sent  from  God,  when  he  came  upon  the 
heels  of  John’s  proclamation,  “  behold  the  king¬ 
dom  of  heaven  is  at  hand,”  and  declared  himself 
to  be  the  exponent  and  head  of  this  kingdom,  men 
asked  questions  as  they  are  asking  them  to-day. 

He  came  as  a  Teacher  of  religious  truth,  and 
men  asked,  Wherein  does  the  authority  of  this 
teacher  differ  from  others,  and  wherein  is  his 
teaching  parallel  to  or  diverse  from  theirs? 


1 8  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


The  answers  to  these  questions  are  given  to 
those  who  will  diligently  study  even  as  much  of 
his  teaching  as  is  contained  in  this  discourse. 

He  came  as  a  Leader  of  the  lives  of  men,  and 
asked  that  those  who  heard  him,  follow  in  his 
way  of  life,  and  men  naturally  ask,  What  does  he 
require  of  those  who  follow  him,  and  what  does 
he  promise  and  offer  in  return  for  such  follow¬ 
ing?  The  answers  to  these  questions  are  found 
in  that  Way  of  Life,  with  its  obligations  and  re¬ 
wards,  as  set  forth  in  this  discourse. 

He  came  as  the  Lawgiver,  the  Enunciator  of 
new  spiritual  principles  of  living,  the  Founder  of 
a  new  kingdom,  and  men  asked,  What  are  the 
laws  and  principles  of  this  new  kingdom,  and  how 
is  one  to  become  a  citizen  of  this  new  realm? 
These  questions  likewise  receive  their  answers  in 
his  present  discourse,  and  answering  the  last  ques¬ 
tion  first  he  at  once  turns  the  thoughts  of  his  hear¬ 
ers  to  the  subject  of  the  Citizens  of  the  kingdom 
of  Heaven,  and  sets  before  them  the  Character 
Worth  Having. 

It  strikes  the  student  of  this  Constitution  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  the  learner  of  what  the  Reli¬ 
gion  of  Christ  is,  as  strange,  that  the  Master 
should  have  sounded  so  high  a  note  at  the  very  be¬ 
ginning  of  his  discourse.  It  seems  as  though  he 
had  begun  at  the  very  climax  of  his  teaching  — 


CHARACTER  WORTH  HAVING  19 

and  that  the  very  perfection  of  attainment  re¬ 
quired  of  the  disciples  of  this  Teacher  is  such  as, 
at  the  outset,  would  discourage  all  following. 
But  Jesus  puts  character,  such  a  character  as  he 
here  outlines,  first  in  his  system  of  teaching,  be¬ 
cause  it  is  to  be  first  in  the  lives  of  his  followers, 
and  it  is  concerning  life  —  real  life  —  true  life, 
abundant  life,  lasting  life,  satisfying  life  —  that 
he  is  speaking  throughout.  Here  is  one  point 
wherein  his  teaching  differs  from  all  those  who 
have  gone  before  and  all  those  who  shall  come 
after. 

The  Teacher  puts  character  first,  in  this  dis¬ 
course,  that  he  may  make  it  prominent  by  contrast. 
It  is  not  knowledge,  nor  attainment,  nor  utterance, 
nor  action  that  must  have  the  prominent  place  in 
the  Religion  of  Christ,  but  character.  He  puts 
character  first  because  of  its  indispensableness  to 
the  system  which  he  taught.  Given  the  character, 
the  elements  of  which  are  enumerated  in  these 
opening  words,  and  the  man  is  a  citizen  of  the 
kingdom;  but  those  who  have  all  else  —  all  out¬ 
ward  semblance  and  conformity  to  the  ideal  law, 
yet  lack  the  inner  character  —  cannot  be  counted 
as  citizens  of  the  kingdom.  He  puts  this  ideal 
character  first  because  the  inner  man  and  the 
spiritual  life  is  of  the  very  essence  of  the  Religion 
of  Christ,  all  else  is  subservient  to  this,  and  de- 


20 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


signed  for  the  production  of  such  a  manhood. 
He  puts  it  first  because  upon  this  is  built  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  of  God,  and  the  religion  of  the  spiritual 
life. 

Now  if  one  should  run  over  the  opening  words 
of  Christ’s  discourse,  and  inquire  what  is  the 
prominent  feature,  what  is  that  mark  which  ap¬ 
pears  in  every  verse  of  the  twelve  and  character¬ 
izes  and  distinguishes  the  whole,  surely  the  least 
observant  cannot  remain  long  in  doubt.  As  when 
some  skilled  player  takes  a  simple  theme,  some 
sweet  melody,  and  with  the  technique  and  touch 
of  the  artist  weaves  it  into  the  warp  and  woof 
of  his  beautiful  harmony,  so  that  the  theme  now 
appears  clear  and  true  and  again  is  lost  in  the 
very  richness  of  its  setting,  yet  under  all  and 
through  all  it  is  present,  giving  character  and 
meaning  to  the  entire  composition,  so  does  the 
Divine  musician  in  this  instance.  His  opening 
words  sound  that  theme  of  u  Blessed,”  which 
threads  its  golden  way  to  the  very  end  of  the 
passage  —  concluding  with  that  burst  of  music, 
“  Rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad.” 

The  motif  of  this  part  of  the  discourse  is 
plainly  “  blessedness,”  joy  and  gladness.  This 
note  of  joy,  this  song  of  heavenly  happiness,  re¬ 
minds  us  of  the  guiding  song  of  the  woodland 
bird  in  Wagner’s  Siegfried,  leading  the  brave  soul, 


CHARACTER  WORTH  HAVING  21 


on  and  up,  “  o’er  moor  and  fen,  o’er  crag  and  tor¬ 
rent  until  the  night  is  gone  ” —  and  his  quest  is 
attained. 

How  helpful  and  how  appropriate  that  our  Di¬ 
vine  Leader  should  have  begun  his  Gospel  with 
this  note  of  encouragement,  this  song  of  blessed 
attainment  for  his  timid  human  followers !  How 
the  giving  of  this  second  law,  the  law  of  love,  con¬ 
trasts  with  the  giving  of  the  first  law,  “  the  fiery 
law,”  when  the  mountain  smoked  and  men  dared 
not  draw  nigh!  How  beautiful  in  its  simplicity 
was  the  giving  of  this  new  law  of  life,  “  And  when 
he  had  sat  down,  his  disciples  came  unto  him!  ” 

Yea  truly,  “  the  Blessed  Life  ”  is  the  theme  of 
these  verses,  and  that  those  who  have  the  qualities 
of  character  here  enumerated  shall  be  blessed,  is 
the  opening  thought.  Lyman  Abbott  in  an  ar¬ 
ticle  in  The  Outlook,  has  given  such  a  true  defi¬ 
nition  and  such  an  apposite  illustration  of  bles¬ 
sedness,  that  we  cannot  refrain  from  here  quoting 
his  words.  “  There  are  three  kinds  of  happiness : 
pleasure,  joy,  blessedness.  Pleasure  is  the  hap¬ 
piness  of  the  animal  nature;  joy,  of  the  social  na¬ 
ture;  blessedness  of  the  spiritual  nature.  Pleas¬ 
ure  we  share  with  the  animals,  joy  with  one  an¬ 
other,  blessedness  with  God.” 

A  boy  comes  home  at  Christmas  from  college. 
At  the  close  of  the  Christmas  dinner  he  says, 


22 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


“  Mother,  I  haven’t  had  as  good  a  dinner  as  this 
since  I  was  home  at  Thanksgiving.”  That  is 
pleasure. 

Friends  come  in;  there  are  games,  dancing, 
quiet  talks  in  nooks  and  corners;  in  brief,  a  good 
time.  That  is  joy. 

By  and  by  the  friends  depart,  the  children  go 
to  their  rooms,  the  father  closes  the  house,  the 
mother  sits  meditatively  by  the  dying  embers  of 
the  fire,  living  over  the  birth,  the  childhood,  the 
early  youth  of  her  boy,  and  looking  forward  with 
a  mother’s  hope  to  his  future,  and  as  her  husband 
comes  to  remind  her  that  it  is  time  to  retire,  she 
draws  a  sigh  of  quiet  joy,  and  says,  as  she  reaches 
out  to  take  his  hand,  “  John,  we  are  certainly  blest 
in  our  children!”  That  is  blessedness.  Such 
a  blessedness,  deep,  sweet,  spiritual,  eternal,  is 
held  out  in  the  opening  words  of  Christ’s  dis¬ 
course  to  those  who  will  dare  to  walk  after  him, 
and  to  attain  to  that  heavenly  character  which  he 
here  portrays. 

Observe  that  these  are  the  many  qualities  of 
one  character,  and  not  the  separate  qualities  of 
many  characters.  He  is  not  describing  the 
classes  of  the  kingdom,  but  the  perfect  harmony 
and  balance  of  each  citizen  of  the  kingdom.  Pa¬ 
tience,  lowliness,  spiritual  aspiration,  kindliness, 
purity,  peaceableness,  a  willingness  to  serve  and 


CHARACTER  WORTH  HAVING  23 


to  suffer  in  that  service,  are  to  dwell  together  as 
happy  brethren  in  the  one  house  of  character. 
These  are  the  heights  of  the  soul  —  the  mountain 
peaks  to  be  attained.  There  is  not  one  quality 
here  enumerated  that  is  not  hard  to  learn,  difficult 
to  attain.  He  who  climbs  to  these  altitudes  must 
have  purpose  and  resolve.  Such  a  purpose  and 
resolve  as  can  only  be  maintained  while  he  hears 
that  voice  of  Blessedness  singing  him  on  his  up¬ 
ward  way. 

Who  but  the  most  impracticable,  ignorant  and 
unobservant  of  men  could  ever  think  that  these 
were  to  be  attained  at  a  bound?  Meekness,  pa¬ 
tience,  kindliness,  suffering  —  do  they  not  speak 
of  years  for  their  completion?  Do  they  not  drop 
with  the  sweat  of  the  labor  of  attainment? 
These  are  the  octave  of  the  heavenly  scale  of 
music;  he  who  can  sound  these  notes  in  right  re¬ 
lation  shall  go  through  the  world  making  the  har¬ 
monies  of  heaven. 

These  are  the  colors,  which  form  the  spectrum 
of  the  heavenly  light;  combined  in  their  due  pro¬ 
portion  they  make  that  pure  light  which  Jesus 
bids  us  to  let  shine.  All  the  beauty  of  holiness 
is  from  the  right  and  skillful  use  of  these  divine 
colors. 

We  see  again,  that  the  striking  mark  which 
differentiates  and  characterizes  the  citizens  of 


24 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


Christ’s  Kingdom,  is  determined  not  by  the  ex¬ 
traneous  and  the  adventitious,  not  by  the  chance 
or  fortune  of  birth  —  but  by  what  you  may,  under 
the  divine  help,  attain  for  yourself. 

In  the  kingdoms  of  this  world,  in  the  nations  of 
the  earth,  citizenship  is  determined  largely  by 
birth. 

In  the  XIV  Amendment  to  our  Constitution  it 
is  written,  u  All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in 
the  United  States,  and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction 
thereof,  are  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  of 
the  State  wherein  they  reside.”  Other  countries 
have  statutes  which  are  substantially  the  same; 
—  but  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  citizenship  is 
not  determined  by  where  you  are,  but  by  what 
you  are.  All  nations,  tribes,  colors,  and  races  of 
men  are  eligible  to  this  citizenship.  It  is  the 
universal  Kingdom.  Jesus  was  a  Jew,  but  he 
was  free  from  that  narrowness  of  nationalism 
which  circumscribed  the  ancient  Israelites. 

Nor  is  this  citizenship  determined  by  “  who  you 
are.”  Whole  nations  have  held  to  the  tradition 
that  a  man’s  place  in  the  world,  his  work  and 
privileges,  his  life,  in  short,  is  settled  by  his  origin 
or  the  chance  circumstances  of  his  environment. 
In  India,  a  man’s  caste,  carrying  with  it  privi¬ 
leges,  opportunities,  obligations  and  promises,  is 
determined  by  custom  and  condition  wholly  with- 


CHARACTER  WORTH  HAVING  25 


out  the  choice  of  the  man  himself.  In  the  king¬ 
dom  of  heaven  this  is  not  so  —  the  conditions  of 
this  citizenship  are  within  the  power  of  the  in¬ 
dividual’s  own  choice  —  and  its  blessings  are  open 
to  all.  The  “  what  you  are,”  the  character  of 
the  man,  is  the  one  sole  and  unchangeable  condi¬ 
tion  of  citizenship.  The  emphasis  of  Christ’s 
teaching  is,  ever  is,  throughout  this  entire  dis¬ 
course  laid  on  character.  “  Being  ”  is  its  great 
theme;  “  to  become  ”  its  great  endeavor.  And  is 
not  the  Master,  philosophically  and  practically, 
wise  in  giving  character  the  place  he  does  in  life? 
As  man  is  the  highest  creature  in  God’s  creation, 
so  character  is  the  highest  level  in  man.  Char¬ 
acter  is  the  man.  The  thing  to  be  supremely 
sought  in  life  is  not  knowledge,  for  the  man  of 
knowledge  who  lacks  character  is  a  more  danger¬ 
ous  citizen  in  any  community  because  of  his  knowl¬ 
edge.  Here  ignorance  is  preferable  to  knowl¬ 
edge.  Nor  is  power  or  place  the  thing  to  be  su¬ 
premely  desired;  for  the  man  of  power  who  lacks 
character  is  a  greater  menace  to  civilization  by 
the  very  possession  of  power. 

The  man  of  wealth  and  of  talent  does  not  by 
the  possession  of  these  enrich  the  community  in 
which  he  lives,  if,  while  owning  these,  he  still 
lacks  that  character  which  makes  the  possession 
of  these  safe  and  helpful.  The  city,  town  or 


2 6  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


State  is  not  the  richer  but  the  poorer  for  having 
him  within  her  midst.  But  given  a  character, 
such  as  is  here  pictured  in  Christ’s  words,  and 
power,  knowledge,  talent  and  possession  is  safe 
in  his  keeping  and  a  real  enrichment  of  life. 

Here  we  find  the  root  thought  from  which 
grows  that  wise,  beautiful  rule  Christ  later  gives 
— “  Seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  his 
righteousness,” —  then  the  world  itself  is  safe  in 
your  keeping.  Christ  ever  viewed  life  in  its 
broadest  aspect,  ever  regarded  and  spoke  of  man 
at  his  highest  level.  How  this  teaching  contrasts 
with  the  wisdom  of  men  and  the  aims  of  hu¬ 
manity!  The  true  man  is  the  spiritual  man;  the 
rich  man  is  the  spiritual  man;  the  strong  man  is 
the  spiritual  man;  the  citizen  of  the  heavenly 
kingdom  is  the  man  of  the  heavenly  character. 

Again,  do  we  not  find  markedly  emphasized  in 
this  Character  to  which  Christ  draws  our  atten¬ 
tion,  what  are  commonly  called  the  passive  ele¬ 
ments?  Lowliness,  meekness,  patience,  kindness, 
peaceableness,  suffering,  these  are  all  passive, 
rather  than  active,  qualities.  The  man  of  the 
Kingdom  seems  to  be  determined  not  so  much  by 
what  he  is  able  to  do  as  by  what  he  is  able  to  bear. 

Says  F.  W.  Robertson,  “  Before  Christ  came, 
the  heathen  had  counted  for  divine  the  legislative 
wisdom  of  man  —  manly  strength,  manly  truth, 


CHARACTER  WORTH  HAVING  27 

manly  justice,  manly  courage.  The  life  and  the 
Cross  of  Christ  shed  a  splendor  from  heaven  upon 
a  new  and  until  then  unheard-of  order  of  heroism 
—  that  which  may  be  called  the  feminine  order.” 

The  next  great  principle  of  living  which  this 
opening  passage  seems  rightly  to  contain  is  this: 
Those  who  follow  the  way  of  life,  laid  down  in 
this  discourse  shall  have  this  character.  Char¬ 
acter  is  not  attained  at  a  bound,  it  does  not  leap 
forth  from  the  life  of  the  man,  full  grown,  as  did 
Athene  from  the  head  of  Zeus.  This  condi¬ 
tion  of  character  cannot  be  too  much  emphasized. 
There  have  been  dreamers,  enthusiasts,  idealists, 
in  every  age,  who  have  thought  that  the  man  can 
be  made  or  remade  in  a  moment.  As  the  earth 
was  at  the  beginning  without  form  and  void  and 
yet  in  that  elemental  substance  there  were  the  pos¬ 
sibilities  of  form,  order,  beauty  and  perfection, 
to  be  called  out  and  developed  in  the  course  of 
the  ages,  so  a  truer  study  of  man  teaches  us  that 
while  within  the  primitive  man,  considered  indi¬ 
vidually  or  collectively,  there  is  the  possibility  of 
moral  and  spiritual  order,  power  and  perfection, 
yet  these  qualities  are  developed  and  called  out 
only  after  long  courses  of  training  and  contact 
with  the  things  of  life.  He  who  thinks  other¬ 
wise  has  not  rightly  interpreted  God’s  way  in  the 
earth,  nor  His  way  in  the  world  of  men.  “  One 


28  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


day  with  the  Lord  is  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a 
thousand  years  as  one  day,”  and  the  element  of 
time  is  necessary  in  the  development  of  such  a 
perfection  of  character  as  is  revealed  in  these 
words  of  the  Christ.  Adam  did  not  begin  a  man 
of  character  —  nor  does  a  boy  begin  with  a  char¬ 
acter,  but  each  of  them  begins  his  career  with  the 
capabilities  of  a  character. 

In  the  presence  of  these  words  of  Christ,  we 
stand  before  the  Alplike  altitudes  of  manhood 
—  and  it  means  a  climb  for  their  attainment;  in 
these  words  a  course  is  set  before  us,  and  it  be¬ 
speaks  a  training;  here  is  pictured  a  character, 
a  heavenly  character,  and  it  means  living. 

Alas,  for  that  one  who  dreams  that  mere  re¬ 
solve,  or  that  a  single  act  of  will,  gives  such  a 
character. 

Moreover,  it  seems  to  me  that  even  a  little 
thought  upon  this  curriculum  which  Christ  here 
sets  down  for  those  who  are  to  be  learners  at 
his  feet  will  teach  us  that  this  character  is  to  be  at¬ 
tained  through  doing,  living,  Action.  How  does 
the  child  learn  anything,  in  this  present  scheme 
of  things  which  we  have  called  the  world?  How 
does  he  learn  walking,  talking,  the  use  of  his 
powers  material  and  immaterial?  Is  it  not  by 
doing?  How  does  the  artist  attain  to  his  ac¬ 
curacy  of  eye  and  skill  of  hand?  Is  it  not  by 


CHARACTER  WORTH  HAVING  29 


practice?  How  does  the  musician  become  the  in¬ 
terpreter  of  the  soul  through  the  media  of  sound? 
Is  it  not  by  practice?  And  does  it  not  tell  of 
years  of  trying,  of  doing?  And  a  manhood  such 
as  this  here  depicted  speaks  to  us  of  years  and 
tears  and  failures  and  successes  and  life.  Sleep¬ 
ing  on  a  dictionary  will  not  give  a  man  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  words  it  contains.  Reading  the 
Bible  and  living  on  your  knees  will  never  make 
“  a  man  of  Christ.”  The  religion  of  the  Master 
is  eminently  practical,  and  the  one  who  learns  this 
way,  must  be  up  and  doing. 

Moreover,  there  is  a  universal  law  underlying 
the  terms  and  conditions  which  the  Master  here 
prescribes  for  his  pupils.  The  result  of  action, 
good  or  bad,  is  reaction.  The  result  of  living, 
is  being.  This  is  to  interpret  life  from  its  inner 
side.  The  modern  psychology  has  strengthened 
and  illustrated  this  truth  of  Christ.  The  physical 
world  acts  upon  the  man  within;  the  psychical 
world  reacts  at  the  touch  of  this  stimulus;  and 
through  this  action  and  reaction  there  comes  the 
change  in  the  nerve,  the  brain,  the  soul  itself, 
the  man  is  built  up  or  the  man  is  broken  down, 
made  or  destroyed  according  to  this  law.  A 
wrong  method  of  life  gives  a  wrong  character  — 
a  right  method  of  living  gives  a  resultant  right¬ 
ness  of  being.  Not  that  this  is  the  whole  of  the 


3o  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

truth,  but  this  is  one  important  phase  of  the 
truth  —  the  one  upon  which  our  minds  are  rest¬ 
ing  at  this  present  moment.  While  it  is  true  that 
environment  makes  the  man,  it  is  likewise  true 
that  man  makes  the  environment,  but  it  is  to  this 
first  limb  of  the  twofold  principle  that  our  thought 
is  here  directed. 

Therefore  and  always,  religion  must  have  law, 
principle,  precept  and  command  —  and  rightly 
is  a  true  religion  denominated  “  a  way  of  Life.” 
The  great  end  of  “  the  living,”  “  the  doing,”  is  not 
for  the  deeds  in  themselves,  but  for  the  sake  of 
the  being  and  of  the  character  of  the  man  which 
is  thus  developed.  How  far  man  has  gone  astray 
in  this  very  region!  Prayer  is  not  for  prayer’s 
sake  —  nor  sacrifices  for  sacrifices’  sake  —  nor 
form  for  form’s  sake,  but  all  for  man’s  sake,  and 
through  him  for  God’s  sake  —  and  what  God 
most  desires  is  the  right  development  of  His  chil¬ 
dren.  The  purpose  of  Christ’s  teaching  is  to 
make  men;  men  like  those  having  the  manhood 
portrayed  in  this  picture.  Men  who  in  their  re¬ 
lations  to  God  are  dependent,  humble,  submissive 
and  receptive;  men  who  in  their  relation  to  their 
fellows  are  patient,  kind  and  serviceful,  for  even 
in  these  qualities  of  character  the  Master  gives 
us  a  foreshadowing  of  the  bifurcated  law  of  love, 
to  which  he  later  calls  explicit  attention.  Men 


CHARACTER  WORTH  HAVING  31 


who  realize,  through  living  the  life,  the  “  Blessed¬ 
ness  ”  which  comes  alone  from  being. 

To  return  to  our  point  of  starting  —  these 
texts  tell  us  that  those  who  attain  this  char¬ 
acter  have  that  character  which  is  worth  possess¬ 
ing.  This  is  true  because  of  the  fruits  borne  of 
such  a  character;  these  are  denominated  collec¬ 
tively  as  “  Blessedness.”  A  man  cannot  be  a  man 
like  this  and  not  be  blessed.  In  spite  of  the  vain 
speculations  of  the  philosophers,  in  spite  of  the 
learned  disquisitions  of  the  men  of  Ethic  —  our 
Teacher  says  here,  most  plainly,  that  goodness 
and  gladness  cannot  be  separated;  righteousness 
and  blessedness  cannot  be  divorced,  God  hath 
married  them  at  the  beginning,  and  what  He  hath 
joined  together  no  man  can  put  asunder. 

When  the  practical  man  of  this  world  inquires, 
“  What  things  are  worth  doing?  ”  the  Master  an¬ 
swers  him,  briefly  and  completely,  “  those  things 
which  result  in  such  a  being.”  These  are  worth 
while,  because  of  the  Divine  approval  — “  The 
Beatitudes,”  as  they  are  called,  begin  and  end  with 
“  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.” 

Christ  himself  is  the  Teacher  and  the  pattern 
for  just  such  a  character.  These  qualities  were 
possessed  and  exemplified  in  his  way  of  life. 
These  are  the  ways  of  pleasantness  and  these  are 
the  paths  of  peace.  These  are  the  texts,  if  you 


32 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


will,  of  sermons  which  Jesus  is  to  preach  to  his 
disciples,  in  his  life,  the  outlines  of  which  are 
given  on  this  occasion.  These  are  the  subjects 
upon  which  the  Teacher  is  about  to  instruct  his 
scholars,  and  the  motto  written  in  letters  of  gold 
across  the  wall  of  the  schoolroom,  that  the  earnest 
scholar  may  ever  have  it  in  mind,  is  this:  “  If 
ye  know  these  things,  happy  are  ye  if  ye  do 
them.” 

In  the  school  of  Christ,  as  in  the  school  of  this 
practical  world,  the  guiding  star  must  be,  “  Esse 
quam  videre.” 


CHAPTER  II 


LIVE  A  USEFUL  LIFE 
Matt,  v,  13-16 

IN  his  opening  words  Christ  has  told  his  fol¬ 
lowers  what  they  are  to  be  —  he  now  turns  to 
the  thought  of  why  they  are  to  be.  As  he  has 
placed  before  them  their  relation  and  obligation 
to  the  God  who  is  above  them,  he  now  puts  be¬ 
fore  them  their  relation  and  obligation  to  the 
world  which  is  about  them.  Unselfishness  is 
slain  with  a  single  stroke;  the  purpose  in  living 
is  established  in  a  sentence.  If  “  to  be  ”  is  the 
end  of  a  man  for  himself,  if  character  is  the  great 
object  of  individual  human  existence,  then  it  fol¬ 
lows,  logically,  that  character  is  developed  only 
in  doing;  character  is  expressed  only  in  action. 
The  solidarity  of  the  race,  the  brotherhood  of 
man,  the  obligation  of  service,  is  established  at 
the  outset. 

As  we  study  the  story  of  creation  we  see  that 
everything  in  the  earth  exists  for  the  sake  of 
something  else,  as  well  as  for  itself.  The  vege¬ 
table  kingdom  rests  on,  and  is  possible  only  be¬ 
cause  of,  the  mineral;  the  animal  depends  upon 

33 


34 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


the  vegetable,  the  human  is  related  to  them  all. 
We  are  debtors  to  every  realm  of  creation,  and 
man  bears  a  relation  to  his  fellows.  As  \ye  view 
the  world  of  nature  from  the  standpoint  of  mod¬ 
ern  science  we  find  this  truth  emphasized  —  the 
interrelation  and  interdependence  of  every  part 
of  this  great  scheme  of  material  things  with 
every  other  part. 

Recently  I  asked  a  professor  of  astronomy  in 
one  of  our  large  colleges  whether  he  did  not  think 
it  probable  that  in  this  infinite  universe  other 
spheres  than  ours  were  inhabited.  He  answered: 
“  Of  course  it  may  be  so,  but  when  I  consider 
how  many  causes,  forces,  factors,  must  unite  for 
the  balance,  adjustment  and  preservation  of  this 
World,  I  can  easily  conceive  that  it  might  be  that 
the  solar  system  with  its  millions  of  stars,  with 
its  planets  and  its  heavenly  bodies,  exists  for  the 
sake  of  this  world  alone.” 

As  we  come  more  and  more  to  the  conviction 
of  the  interdependence  and  interrelation  of  great 
and  small,  for  the  production  of  an  ordered,  stu¬ 
pendous  whole,  in  the  world  physical,  so  Scrip¬ 
ture  teaches  us  that  before  all,  back  of  all,  sus¬ 
taining  all,  operating  in  and  through  all,  is  God. 
As  science  teaches  us  that  nothing  in  the  world 
exists  for  its  own  sake,  so  Scripture  teaches  us 
that  God  does  not,  cannot,  live  a  selfish,  uncom- 


LIVE  A  USEFUL  LIFE 


35 


municative,  useless  life. 

Therefore  how  eminently  in  accord  with  the 
nature  of  things,  how  preeminently  proper,  is  this 
teaching  of  Christ,  that  man  who  partakes  of 
God’s  nature  and  is  made  in  His  image  should 
live  for  a  purpose,  and  must  have  something  to 
do  for  other  than  self  in  this  present  world?  — 
in  other  words,  he  must  live  a  useful  life. 

If  one  should  ask,  “  Why  should  a  man  live 
a  useful  life?”  the  briefest  answer  is,  “  Because 
he  is  fitted  for  it.”  The  possession  of  a  power 
is  the  pledge  of  its  use;  the  condition  of  the 
ownership  of  a  talent  is  its  right  employment. 
Consider  man  as  a  mechanism  merely,  as  a  piece 
of  machinery  fitted  to  do  work,  and  where  will 
you  find  his  equal?  I  have  seen  the  hand  of  man 
likened  to  a  chest  of  tools,  and  it  is  not  an  inapt 
illustration.  Man’s  hand  contains  a  variety  of 
pincers,  a  hammer,  chisels,  auger,  etc.  The  orig¬ 
inal  meaning  of  “  manufacture  ”  was  handmade, 
and  even  to-day,  in  spite  of  the  perfected  ma¬ 
chinery,  for  the  production  of  the  best  articles 
we  need  to  go  back  to  first  principles,  and  make 
things  by  hand.  Add  to  this  the  power  of  brain, 
imagination,  contrivance  and  invention  —  and 
what  cannot  man  do  for  the  promotion  and  bet¬ 
terment  of  the  creature-comforts  of  his  fellows? 

Enter  the  realm  of  the  moral  and  intellectual, 


36  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

consider  the  treasures  of  philosophy,  science, 
poetry,  art,  music,  architecture  and  the  like  — 
and  we  see  in  the  rich  catalogue  of  what  man 
has  done,  what  he  is  fitted  to  do,  to  advance  and 
elevate  the  life  of  his  brothers. 

Add  to  this  man’s  spiritual  equipment,  if  for 
argument’s  sake  we  may  separate  these  gifts  from 
others,  and  we  behold  the  rich  possession  of  the 
Christian  man  —  the  truth  and  power  which  are 
his  to  bless  and  brighten  all  life. 

Not  only  do  we  find,  in  reason  and  in  Scrip¬ 
ture,  that  these  gifts  are  bestowed  upon  man  that 
he  may  increase  and  use  them  unselfishly,  but  we 
likewise  find  within  the  man  himself  a  court  and 
judge  to  whom  he  must  answer,  for  the  use  or 
misuse  of  these  possessions.  The  man  who  lives 
the  useful  life  is  the  man  who  lives  the  blessed 
life  in  this  respect,  and  is  the  man  who  has  the 
commendation  of  his  conscience.  The  man  who 
lives  uselessly  is,  in  general  terms,  the  miserable 
man,  and  the  man  who  is  under  the  condemnation 
of  that  same  inward  mentor.  A  man  can  do  no 
worse  than  to  do  nothing  at  all.  And  it  is  in 
response  to  this  unchangeable  edict  of  nature, 
that  many  a  man,  feeling  himself  to  be  no  longer 
of  use  in  the  world,  has  adjudged  himself  worth¬ 
less,  and  taken  his  own  life.  In  an  interesting 
book,  a  study  of  Fetichism  among  the  Africans 


LIVE  A  USEFUL  LIFE 


37 


in  the  Congo  region,  I  find  a  supreme  illustra¬ 
tion  of  this  desire  in  man  to  be  of  use  to  his  fel¬ 
lows.  Says  the  writer,  in  substance,  “  If  there 
were  no  hereafter,  if  I  did  not  believe  in  a  world 
to  come,  and  did  not  feel  the  need  of  using  this 
present  world  as  a  preparation  for  the  future 
world,  still  the  mere  present  utility  of  blessing 
and  bettering  the  condition  of  life  among  these 
poor  Africans,  the  reward  of  making  lighter  their 
burden  and  brighter  their  lot  for  this  present 
time,  would  be  reason  enough  for  my  service  and 
my  sacrifice.” 

We  find  still  another  ground  in  reason  for  liv¬ 
ing  an  active,  useful  life  —  because  there  is  such 
need  for  it  in  this  world.  God  never  made  a  man 
to  be  idle,  he  has  put  him  into  a  world  that  has 
constant  need  of  his  care;  the  earth  is  calling  for 
his  thought,  the  creatures  of  earth  are  asking  for 
his  help.  The  terms  of  the  original  lease  under 
which  this  earth  was  left  to  man  for  a  season  are 
that  he  should  “  till  and  subdue  ”  it;  while  he 
fulfills  these  conditions  he  shall  have  dominion; 
as  long  as  he  lives  up  to  these  terms  he  shall  be 
master;  but  only  so.  Let  him  violate  this  first 
contract,  and  the  earth  is  taken  away  from  him 
and  becomes  his  master.  There  is  not  a  garden 
that  grows  that  does  not  call  lustily  every  morn¬ 
ing  through  the  summer  season  for  the  care,  at- 


38  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

tention  and  service  of  its  owner.  The  natural 
tendency  of  all  things  earthly,  material  and  im¬ 
material,  to  retrograde  and  degenerate  if  neg¬ 
lected  and  left  to  themselves,  is  nature’s  uni¬ 
versal  call  to  man  to  be  up  and  doing,  and  to 
fulfill  this  command  of  Jesus. 

To  the  man  who  has  the  observation  to  read 
the  facts  of  nature  and  the  ability  to  interpret 
the  lessons  of  nature,  the  obligation  and  worth 
of  the  active  and  useful  life  is  imperative. 

“  I  went  by  the  field  of  the  slothful,  and  by 
the  vineyard  of  the  man  void  of  understanding; 
and  lo,  it  was  all  grown  over  with  thorns,  and 
nettles  had  covered  the  face  thereof,  and  the  stone 
wall  thereof  was  broken  down.  Then  I  saw,  and 
considered  it  well :  I  looked  upon  it,  and  received 
instruction.”  1 

It  is  because  it  is  in  accord  with  the  con¬ 
stitution  of  things  that  Christ’s  command  is 
spoken.  While  some  say  it  is  right  for  man  to 
live  a  useful  life  because  Christ  commands  it,  it 
would  be  more  true  to  say  that  he  commands  it 
because  it  is  right.  Christ  commands  the  useful 
life  because  it  is  a  prime  necessity  of  right  living 
—  who  rightly  lives  must  truly  serve. 

If  we  bring  this  principle  down  to  the  world 
of  men,  we  are  here  taught  by  our  Master  what 

1  Prov.,  24:30-32. 


LIVE  A  USEFUL  LIFE 


39 


it  is  to  be  useful.  It  is  in  the  first  place  to  be 
a  preservative  element  in  the  world.  “Ye  are 
the  salt  of  the  earth  ”  is  not  used  in  a  compli¬ 
mentary,  but  in  a  real,  sense.  Sodium  is  one  of 
the  elements;  its  relation  to  life  is  universal  and 
important.  It  is  present  in  the  composition  of 
water,  rocks,  plants  and  animals.  Its  preserva¬ 
tive  character  is  illustrated  by  J.  E.  Johnson  in 
these  words,  “  The  whole  globe  would  be  one 
stupendous  mass  of  putrefaction  but  for  the  saline 
nature  of  the  ocean.”  This  statement  may  be 
applied  in  a  moral  as  well  as  a  material  sense.  It 
is  at  least  a  significant  fact  that  sodium  is  present 
in  all  living  organisms;  it  is  a  life  element.  It 
is  salt  which  prevents  corruption  and  dissolution, 
and  when  we  realize  that  Jesus  was  talking  to  a 
people  who  lived  in  a  country  where  the  tempera¬ 
ture  rose  high  at  certain  seasons,  and  where  ice 
was  probably  not  used  or  little  used  for  refrigera¬ 
tion,  as  it  is  among  us,  his  figure  of  speech  be¬ 
comes  most  apposite.  What  he  says  to  his  fol¬ 
lowers  is  this:  If  the  world  is  to  be  kept  morally 
pure  and  spiritually  fresh  it  must  be  by  the  lives 
of  those  who  have  within  them  the  salt  of  my 
spirit  and  teaching.  It  is  the  Christ-life  which 
is  to-day  the  savior  of  the  world.  And  in  that 
proportion  and  to  that  degree  shall  men  be  of 
use  to  their  kind,  as  they  possess  or  lack  the  ele- 


4o 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


ments  of  that  character,  which  he  has  exhibited 
to  them  in  his  opening  words,  and  which  forms 
the  savor  of  the  “  living  salt.” 

Further,  says  our  Master,  to  live  a  useful  life 
is  to  be  an  illuminative  force  in  the  world.  “Ye 
are  the  light  of  the  world.”  The  connection  of 
light  with  life  is  inseparable  and  vital.  Where 
light  is  there  is  life,  where  life  is  there  light  must 
be.  “  Let  there  be  light  ”  was  the  first  com¬ 
mand  at  the  dawn  of  Creation.  And  it  is  through 
the  agency  of  light  that  physical  life  has  been 
called  into  being  and  has  been  maintained.  The 
meaning  of  the  light  of  the  sun  to  the  world  is 
a  subject  hard  to  exhaust;  it  means  warmth, 
cheer,  health,  beauty,  energy,  life.  We  are  in 
sympathy  with  those  early  worshipers  of  the  sun, 
who  bowed  in  worship  before  the  brightness  and 
glory,  before  the  beauty  and  majesty,  of  the  great 
King  of  Day  —  they  had  discovered  a  great  law 
of  nature. 

The  light  of  the  sun  is,  indeed,  the  source  and 
spring  of  all  our  physical  life  and  energy.  The 
power  of  physical  life  is  not  from  within  man  but 
from  without,  from  the  great  center  of  our  physical 
system,  mediated  to  us  through  the  multiplied 
physical  agencies  of  this  material  world.  Says 
Professor  Tyndall  in  his  “  Fragments  of  Sci¬ 
ence  ” :  “  The  sunbeams  excite  our  interest  and 


LIVE  A  USEFUL  LIFE 


4i 


invite  our  investigation;  but  they  also  extend  their 
beneficent  influences  to  our  fruits  and  corn,  and 
thus  accomplish  not  only  intellectual  ends,  but 
minister  at  the  same  time  to  our  material  necessi¬ 
ties.”  2  And  again,  in  his  lecture  on  Force,  says 
this  same  author:  “But  there  is  still  another 
work  which  the  sun  performs,  and  its  connection 
with  which  is  not  so  obvious.  Trees  and  vege¬ 
tables  grow  upon  the  earth,  and  when  burned 
they  give  rise  to  heat,  and  hence  to  mechanical 
energy.”  .  .  .  “  We  cannot,  however,  stop  at 
vegetable  life,  for  it  is  the  source,  mediate  or  im¬ 
mediate,  of  all  animal  life.  The  sun  severs  the 
carbon  from  its  oxygen  and  builds  the  vegetable; 
the  animal  consumes  the  vegetable  thus  formed, 
a  reunion  of  the  severed  elements  takes  place, 
producing  animal  heat.  The  process  of  building 
a  vegetable  is  one  of  winding  up;  the  process  of 
building  an  animal  is  one  of  running  down.  The 
warmth  of  our  bodies  and  every  mechanical  en¬ 
ergy  which  we  exert,  trace  their  lineage  directly 
to  the  sun.  The  fight  of  a  pair  of  pugilists,  the 
motion  of  an  army,  or  the  lifting  of  his  own  body 
by  an  Alpine  climber  up  a  mountain  slope,  are 
all  cases  of  mechanical  energy  drawn  from  the 
SUn.”  * 

This  is  the  meaning  of  physical  light  to  a 

2  Tyndall’s  “  Fragments  of  Science,”  I:  On  the  Study  of  Physics. 

3  Tyndall’s  “Fragments  of  Science,”  I:  Force. 


42 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


physical  world.  These  are  the  first  principles  of 
science,  fundamental  facts  of  life.  We  may  not 
understand  all  the  processes,  but  the  prime  facts 
are  certain. 

In  like  manner,  says  our  Teacher,  spiritual  light 
is  the  source  of  spiritual  energy  —  that  man  who 
has  the  light  within  him  is  that  man  who  sheds 
the  light  about  him,  and  where  the  light  is  there 
is  the  life  also. 

We  need  but  mention  such  lives,  symbolized 
by  the  names  of  Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle  — 
Augustine,  Paul,  Luther,  Bunyan  and  Lincoln 
—  and  Jesus  the  Christ,  the  greatest  of  them  all; 
we  need  but  consider  for  a  moment  their  effect 
and  influence  in  the  world,  for  beautifying,  vivi- 
fying,  glorifying,  those  with  whom  they  came  into 
touch,  to  realize  the  meaning  of  the  Master’s 
teaching,  “  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world.” 
“  Let  your  light  shine  before  men.” 

If  now  we  ask,  How  does  this  usefulness  prac¬ 
tically  express  itself  in  the  world  —  of  person¬ 
ality?  Jesus  here  by  implication  answers  that 
question. 

It  is  not  things,  nor  principles,  nor  truths,  but 
Persons  that  are  to  be  the  preservative  of  the 
moral  and  spiritual  life  in  a  moral  and  spiritual 
world. 

It  is  not  things,  nor  principles,  nor  truths,  but 


LIVE  A  USEFUL  LIFE 


43 


persons  that  are  the  illuminating  and  energizing 
centers  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  life  in  a  moral 
and  spiritual  world.  “  /  am  the  light  of  the 
world,”  “  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world,”  is  the 
formula  containing  these  truths. 

This  is  the  teaching  of  the  Christ — and  this 
is  in  accord  with  the  facts  of  life  and  with  the 
conclusions  of  all  sane,  sound  men.  In  that  eth¬ 
ical  handbook  of  Buddhism  the  “  Dhammapada 
or  Path  to  Virtue,”  this  truth  is  expressed  in 
these  words,  “  The  scent  of  flowers  does  not 
travel  against  the  wind,  nor  that  of  sandal  wood 
or  of  Tagara  and  Malika  flowers,  but  the  odor 
of  good  people  travels  even  against  the  wind;  a 
good  man  pervades  every  place.”  Again,  in  the 
same  book,  “  A  man  does  not  become  a  Brah- 
manna  by  his  plaited  hair,  by  his  family  or  by 
birth :  in  whom  there  is  truth  and  righteousness 
he  is  blessed,  he  is  a  Brahmanna.” 

The  community  is  good  or  bad  according  to 
the  good  or  bad  persons  in  it.  It  may  have  the 
completest  knowledge  —  the  finest  system  of  edu¬ 
cation,  the  most  perfect  theology,  the  latest  sci¬ 
ence,  and  yet  be  a  community  of  persons  whose 
lives  are  savorless,  because  these  things  are 
merely  trifled  with  and  not  eaten,  assimilated,  ap¬ 
propriated  and  expressing  themselves  in  the 
daily  power  of  personality.  If  the  Sabbath  is  to 


44 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


be  preserved  it  must  be  preserved,  not  by  lectures, 
pamphlets,  tractates  on  the  subject,  but  by  per¬ 
sons  loving  the  Sabbath  and  living  the  Sabbath, 
in  accord  with  its  fundamental  ideas  of  a  day  of 
rest  and  worship.  If  the  Bible  is  to  keep  its 
place  and  influence  in  the  world,  this  must  be  ac¬ 
complished  by  those  persons  who  give  the  Bible 
its  right  place  and  its  due  influence  in  their  daily 
lives.  If  the  home  is  to  be  kept  from  degrada¬ 
tion  and  disintegration,  this  can  be  attained  only 
by  those  persons  who  live  true  and  loyal  to  the 
homes  which  they  represent.  This  phase  of  the 
question  Jesus  further  elaborates  when  he  speaks 
of  the  necessity  of  Living  the  Pure  Life. 

If  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  to  make  any  real 
progress,  this  must  be  by  persons,  daily,  hourly, 
on  work  days  and  worship  days,  in  business,  and 
in  associations  with  their  fellows,  expressing  in 
their  actions  and  in  the  multiplied  manifestations 
of  their  lives,  those  principles  for  which  the  King¬ 
dom  stands. 

The  religion  which  Jesus  taught  is  eminently 
practical;  it  descends  to  the  most  trivial  and  most 
commonplace  matters  of  our  ordinary  lives,  as  we 
shall  see  in  his  later  expositions.  The  value  of  a 
good  man  to  a  community  is  hard  to  overesti¬ 
mate,  yet  his  worth  is  faintly  figured  in  the  nine¬ 
teenth  chapter  of  Genesis,  where  God  says  to 


LIVE  A  USEFUL  LIFE 


45 


Abraham,  “  if  there  are  ten  righteous  in  Sodom, 
I  will  not  destroy  it  for  the  ten’s  sake.”  A  good 
man  is  worth  as  much  to  a  community  to-day  as 
he  ever  was.  And  surely  it  is  a  fact  that  the 
good  people  are  “  the  salt  of  the  earth,”  and  the 
Christ-like  are  “  the  light  of  the  world.” 

How  more  clearly  and  forcibly  could  we  have 
presented  to  us  the  practical  character  of  the  reli¬ 
gion  of  Christ?  His  religion  is  not  compliance 
with  set  forms  and  prescribed  ceremonies  —  it  is 
not  a  service  that  is  satisfied  with  temple  worship 
and  temple  rite.  His  religion  is  a  religion  of  the 
heart,  a  religion  of  the  spirit,  a  religion  that  in¬ 
fluences  and  determines  the  center  and  springs  of 
action  of  the  entire  man.  It  is  a  religion  that 
must  be  kept  by  the  entire  man  or  it  is  not  kept 
by  the  man  at  all.  It  concerns  a  man  in  all 
relations  of  all  his  life  —  the  highest  and  the  low¬ 
est  —  the  sublimest  moment  of  vision  and  in  the 
doing  of  so  simple  a  thing  as  giving  a  cup  of 
cold  water  to  a  thirsty  soul.  “  Whether  ye  eat, 
or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory 
of  God.” 

Does  not  this  broad  and  beautiful  teaching  of 
what  Christ  means  by  religion,  mark  the  absurd¬ 
ity  and  worthlessness  of  what  men  have  often 
taught  and  practiced  for  religion?  Does  it  not 
condemn,  in  a  sentence,  the  mechanical,  formal, 


4 6  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

cold,  periodic,  ritualistic,  external,  pharisaic  ele¬ 
ments  of  religion  as  not  of  the  essence  of  his  reli¬ 
gion?  And  are  not  these  the  very  features  of  re¬ 
ligion  on  which  men  of  a  former  day  and  men 
of  the  present  day  have  too  often  laid  their  em¬ 
phasis?  Form  of  baptism,  method  of  worship, 
written  or  ex  tempore  prayer,  metaphysics  of  the 
creeds,  while  they  may  have  a  place,  while  they 
may  have  an  importance,  to  some  minds,  yet  their 
place  is  not  the  first  nor  is  their  importance  the 
greatest  in  a  religion  which  lays  so  little  stress  on 
externalities,  and  so  great  an  emphasis  on  the  real¬ 
ities;  which  says  in  so  many  words,  “Have  the 
spirit  of  religion  and  let  the  form  take  care  of 
itself.” 

It  is  this  reality  and  breadth  of  the  religion  of 
Jesus  which  commends  many  a  life  that  the 
church  has  condemned,  and  which  condemns  many 
a  life  which  the  church  has  commended.  When 
we  consider  the  height  and  depth,  the  breadth  and 
fullness,  of  that  religion  which  Jesus  taught,  when 
we  realize  that  it  is  co-extensive  and  coincident 
with  the  totality  of  a  man’s  life,  then  we  under¬ 
stand,  as  never  before,  that  to  be  a  person  of  re¬ 
ligion  after  Christ’s  sense  is  an  interminable 
work.  A  man  may  learn  a  trade  in  a  few  months, 
and  be  a  master-workman;  a  man  may  know  his 
profession  or  calling  in  a  few  years,  and  become 


LIVE  A  USEFUL  LIFE 


47 


an  authority;  a  man  may  attain  to  almost  any 
earthly  accomplishment  in  time;  but  to  be  really 
a  man  of  religion  is  to  be  something  that  is  coin¬ 
cident  with  all  trades,  callings,  accomplishments, 
works;  to  be  something  that  continues  through 
life  and  forever  and  ever. 

The  maxim  which  Jesus  here  gives  his  learners 
is  this:  “  Be,  in  order  that  you  may  do.” 

The  man  who  has  the  salt  of  the  kingdom 
within  him,  the  man  who  is  himself  lighted  by  the 
spirit  of  Jesus,  cannot  fail  to  live  a  useful  life. 


CHAPTER  III 


LIVE  A  PROGRESSIVE  LIFE 
Matt,  v,  17-20 


GROWTH  is  a  fundamental  mark  of  all  life; 

where  there  is  life  there  is  growth;  where 
there  is  no  growth  there  is  no  life.  The  religion 
of  Jesus  is  a  life,  and  he  came  that  they  might 
have  life  and  have  it  in  evermore  abundance1. 
With  the  gift  of  life  in  all  its  phases,  which  comes 
from  God,  there  of  necessity  comes  with  it  the 
power  and  certainty  of  growth.  When  God  im¬ 
bued  dead  matter  with  the  royal  gift  of  life,  the 
possibility  and  promise  of  progress  were  included 
in  that  gift.  Within  the  tiny  seed  of  physical 
life  was  wrapped  all  the  development,  all  the  ad¬ 
vancement,  all  the  progress  of  that  life,  from  the 
earliest  primordial  germ  to  the  highest,  most  per¬ 
fectly  organized  form  of  life  which  we  find  to-day. 
The  path  from  the  first  most  simple  form  to  the 
last  most  perfect  form  is  termed  the  way  of  prog¬ 
ress. 

Progress  is  the  watchword  and  slogan  of  to¬ 
day.  Men  have  often  feared  and  frequently  af¬ 
firmed  that  religion  destroys  progress.  Too 

48 


LIVE  A  PROGRESSIVE  LIFE  49 


often  has  this  fear  been  realized  because  men 
have  accepted  and  adopted  a  dead  rather  than  a 
living  religion.  That  which  differentiates  the  re¬ 
ligion  of  Jesus  from  any  other  religion  that  has 
ever  been  known  is  that  the  religion  of  Christ  is 
the  religion  of  life,  and  hence  the  religion  of  prog¬ 
ress.  Plainly,  in  this  passage,  as  well  as  else¬ 
where,  does  Jesus  declare  that  religion  does  not 
destroy,  but  per  contra  the  true  religion,  the  re¬ 
ligion  which  he  taught,  is  the  promise  and 
prophecy  of  progress  to  perfection. 

“  I  am  not  come  to  destroy  the  law  ”  (law, 
which  is  simply  a  formula  of  the  way  in  which 
God  is  working  out  the  development  of  the  race), 
but  to  bring  it  to  its  fulfillment  and  perfection. 
It  is  the  vital,  living,  progressive  element  in  the 
religion  of  Christ  which  makes  it  suitable  to  all 
men  of  all  ages;  it  is  this  which  takes  such  a  hold 
upon  the  hearts  of  men;  it  is  the  fact  and  prin¬ 
ciple  of  this  progress  which  we  would  seek  to  ex¬ 
hibit  in  this  chapter. 

In  these  words,  “  I  am  not  come  to  destroy  but 
to  fulfill,”  we  have  the  Master’s  promise  of  prog¬ 
ress  to  completion.  Jesus  is  speaking  in  this  dis¬ 
course  to  his  disciples  on  the  great  subject  of  life 
—  and  here  he  intimates  to  them  the  fact  of 
growth  and  the  large  lines  along  which  this  life 
must  develop. 


50 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


If  we  view  the  unfolding  of  life,  in  the  records 
that  are  left  for  us  in  the  book  of  nature,  we  read 
that  there  has  ever  been  a  steady  progress.  We 
observe  that  life  has  unfolded  from  the  simplest 
forms  to  the  simpler,  to  the  simple,  to  the  com¬ 
plex,  the  more  complex,  the  most  complex. 
Whatever  may  be  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  the 
evolutionary  theory  as  an  explanation  of  the 
origin  or  variation  of  living  species,  this  much  is 
clear,  that  there  has  been  an  upward  progress  in 
all  living  organisms. 

As  an  incident  of  this  progress  we  observe  that 
old  forms  have  passed  away,  old  conditions  have 
been  changed,  whole  races  of  creatures  have  dis¬ 
appeared,  that  they  might  give  place  to  the  new, 
and  the  new  has  ever  taken  the  place  of  the  old. 
This  is  one  great  law  of  the  physical  world. 
That  which  is  true  in  the  world  of  nature  is  true 
in  the  world  of  men,  because  men  are  part  of 
the  world  of  nature. 

History  reveals  like  progress  with  biology  — 
old  customs,  old  institutions,  old  languages,  old 
nations,  have  gradually  disappeared,  and  the  new 
has  come  in  to  take  their  places.  What  has  been 
true  of  the  whole  of  the  life  of  man  has,  likewise, 
been  true  of  the  parts  of  it;  myth  and  fable  have 
yielded  place  to  fact  and  history,  astrology  and 
alchemy  with  all  their  fascination  and  with  such 


LIVE  A  PROGRESSIVE  LIFE  51 


truth  and  use  as  they  had,  have  been  supplanted  by 
modern  science;  and  likewise  religion  has  felt  the 
touch  and  change  of  time,  has  broken  the  shell 
of  its  former,  narrower  self  and  has  built  for  it¬ 
self  statelier  mansions  to  accommodate  its  larger, 
growing  spirit.  Old  practices,  old  creeds,  old 
forms,  old  rites,  may  pass,  must  pass,  because  the 
religion  which  Jesus  Christ  taught  is  living,  and 
so  keeps  pace  with  the  progress  of  the  ages. 
Jesus  here  tells  his  disciples  that  this  is  the  way 
of  God’s  working,  which  is  only  another  name 
for  God’s  law. 

In  this  teaching  of  the  progress  of  the  religion 
which  Jesus  exhibits,  he  further  shows  that  the 
progress  is  not  to  be  by  the  destruction  of  that 
which  has  been;  his  work  is  not  the  destruction 
of  the  law  and  the  prophets,  but  the  promotion 
and  furtherance  of  those  very  things  for  which 
they  stood.  The  old  law  is  not  abrogated,  but 
interpreted  and  expanded  —  made  fuller  and 
more  binding  by  this  very  principle  of  progress. 
His  disciples  must  not  think  that  the  law  was 
worthless  because  it  now  comes  in  new  form. 
The  old  law  must  still  be  maintained  in  its  prin¬ 
ciple,  and  never  can  be  abrogated,  for  it  is  the 
law  of  God.  The  old  law  contains  within  it  the 
new,  had  they  but  the  spiritual  eyes  to  see  it.  It 
is  of  the  old  law  that  the  new  is  born,  under  the 


52 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


quickening  touch  of  his  interpretation.  The  new 
law  was  in  the  old  as  the  full  flower  is  within  the 
seed,  and  as  the  “  child  is  father  to  the  man.” 
He  had  not  come  to  teach  men  to  break  the  law 
—  those  who  broke  and  taught  men  so  to  do 
should  be  called  the  least  in  the  kingdom;  and  it 
was  those  who  respected,  taught  and  did  the  law 
who  should  be  called  great  in  this  heavenly  king¬ 
dom.  No,  it  was  not  to  destroy,  nor  to  weaken, 
nor  to  make  less  binding  that  law  which  had  been 
a  guide  to  their  fathers  for  so  many  years,  that 
law  which  had  brought  their  nation  to  such  honor 
and  glory,  that  he  was  speaking,  but  that  this  law 
might  be  made  fuller,  more  far  reaching,  more 
binding,  more  penetrative  and  pervasive.  To 
keep  and  honor  the  law,  as  their  fathers  and 
teachers  had  done,  for  so  many  centuries,  was  not 
enough  for  these  children  of  a  larger  growth  — 
while  this  might  do  for  those  who  lived  in  the 
dawn  of  the  centuries  it  would  never  do  for  these 
who  were  living  in  his  day  and  under  the  light 
of  the  glorious  Gospel  of  the  Christ. 

This  the  Master  makes  very  plain  to  them  — 
he  leaves  no  doubt  in  the  matter  —  he  says  to 
them  in  so  many  words,  “  For  I  say  unto  you, 
that  except  your  righteousness  shall  exceed  the 
righteousness  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  ye 
shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 


LIVE  A  PROGRESSIVE  LIFE 


53 


heaven.”  And  then  in  the  following  sections,  he 
proceeds  to  quote  from  the  old  law,  after  the 
letter,  and  interprets  it  in  the  new  way,  after  the 
spirit. 

Says  the  Master,  “  Ye  have  heard,”  quoting 
the  old  law,  “  thou  shalt  not  kill.”  “  But  I  say 
unto  you,”  this  law  must  go  deeper  than  a  mere 
outward  observance  —  it  must  lay  hold  of  the 
heart  and  be  made  to  read,  “  Thou  shalt  not 
hate.” 

“  Ye  have  heard,  thou  shalt  not  commit  adul¬ 
tery.”  “  But  I  say  unto  you,  thou  shalt  have  a 
pure  heart.” 

“  Ye  have  heard,  thou  shalt  not  forswear.” 
“  But  I  say  unto  you,  thou  shalt  live  in  such  ac¬ 
cord  with  the  truth  —  that  thou  shalt  not  need 
to  swear  at  all.” 

Is  this  not  progress,  advance,  growth  immedi¬ 
ate  and  growth  prospective? 

What  Jesus  seeks  to  inculcate  is  a  more  per¬ 
fect  and  fuller  keeping  of  the  law  —  his  law  looks 
toward  the  inward  reality  of  love,  purity  and 
truth,  rather  than  to  the  outward  conformity, 
signified  in  murder,  adultery  and  forswearing. 

This  certainty  and  promise  of  progress  is 
given  to  us  in  Christ’s  attitude  toward  his  own 
life  work.  What  evidence  had  he  of  success  in 
his  work,  after  such  devotion,  such  teaching,  such 


54  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

works  —  a  handful  of  followers.  What  cause 
had  he  for  expectations  or  encouragement  — 
priests  and  rulers  against  him,  Pharisees  and 
Sadducees  seeking  to  overthrow  him,  the  people 
of  the  land  but  feebly  and  fearfully  following 
him.  Yet  what  hope,  nay  confidence,  nay  cer¬ 
tainty  of  success  had  he!  “Heaven  and  earth 
may  pass  away,  but  my  word  cannot  pass  away.” 
He  was  never  a  despondent,  never  a  disheartened 
and  never  a  defeated,  man.  He  knew  that  the 
times  would  grow  to  his  teaching,  because  he 
knew  the  power  and  operation  and  progress  of 
the  truth.  Therefore  he  could  say  to  them  with 
confidence,  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto 
a  grain  of  mustard  seed  —  very,  very  small  in 
its  beginnings,  but  it  shall  become  great  indeed. 
It  is  like  the  leaven,  working  secretly,  silently, 
slowly,  but  it  shall  leaven  the  entire  lump  of  life. 

And  while  he  knew  the  certainty  of  growth,  he 
also  knew  the  law  of  growth,  “  First  the  blade 
and  then  the  ear  and  then  the  full  corn  in  the 
ear,”  and  so  he  was  content  to  work  and  wait  and 
know. 

Following  this  hint  which  Jesus  gives  us, 
that  the  law  of  progress  obtains  in  the  things  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  let  us  apply  the  teaching 
to  those  facts  that  may  come  under  our  observa¬ 
tion,  and  is  it  not  evident  that  there  is  this  pro- 


LIVE  A  PROGRESSIVE  LIFE 


55 


gressive  element  in  the  revelation  of  that  reli¬ 
gion  which  has  come  from  God?  Is  not  the 
revelation  in  Scripture  a  progressive  revelation, 
coincident  with  the  development  of  mankind? 
“  I  have  many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  ye  can 
not  bear  them  now.”  1  What  are  the  earliest 
forms  of  teaching  concerning  God  found  in  the 
Bible?  Are  not  these  truths  of  God  given  to  us 
in  types,  figures,  story-form?  We  are  not  now 
considering  them  at  all  critically  nor  as  to  their 
content,  but  only  asking  concerning  their  form. 
The  story  of  the  Creation  —  the  story  of  the 
Fall  —  the  story  of  the  two  brothers  —  the  story 
of  the  Deluge  —  the  story  of  the  high  tower  — 
these  are  the  earliest  forms  of  the  Bible  teaching, 
and  how  well  they  are  adapted  to  the  child  mind 
we  well  know.  Then  follows  the  form  of  biog¬ 
raphy  —  lessons  taught  in  the  lives  of  great  char¬ 
acters.  Men  are  made  to  appear  before  us  and 
the  principle  appears  in  the  person.  This  is  a 
later  form  adapted  to  a  larger  growth.  Then 
God  is  revealed  in  detached  precepts,  ceremonies, 
rites,  things  to  be  done,  that  principles  may  be 
learned  in  the  doing.  Then  comes  the  time  of 
a  larger  freedom,  a  more  spiritual  revelation, 
given  by  the  prophets.  Then  after  a  long  time 
comes  the  Christ.  He  gave  very  few  precepts, 

1  Jno.  xvi,  12. 


56  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

had  little  to  do  with  form,  but  much  with  spirit. 
This  is  the  religion  of  principle.  This  is  the  re¬ 
ligion  adapted  to  a  more  mature  age  —  to  chil¬ 
dren  of  a  larger  growth.  It  was  principle,  prin¬ 
ciple,  principle  that  Jesus  taught,  and  insisted 
upon  —  and  this  is  suited  to  the  liberty  of  the 
Gospel  and  to  the  individuality  of  spirit.  Thus 
we  see  that  the  revelation  that  has  been  made  is 
from  the  simpler  and  concrete  to  the  more  com¬ 
plex  and  abstract,  and  yet  —  that  which  is  new 
in  the  revelation  has  been  ever  born  out  of  that 
which  is  old,  the  earliest  stories  of  Genesis  agree 
largely  with  the  latest  principles  of  the  Gospel 
teaching,  and  “  in  the  beginning  God  ”  is  the  seed 
from  which  the  entire  organism  has  grown. 

That  there  is  this  progressive  element  in  the 
religion  of  Christ  is  shown  from  a  mere  glance 
at  the  relation  of  this  religion  to  the  progress  of 
civilization.  Men  to-day  are  better  fed,  better 
clothed,  better  housed,  living  in  better  material 
and  physical  conditions,  surrounded  with  more 
“  creature  comforts,”  because  of  the  principle, 
“  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.”  And 
when  it  comes  to  the  social  relations  of  men,  the 
advance  and  betterment  is  directly  traceable  to 
the  progressive  element  in  the  religion  of  Christ. 

Says  Richard  Storrs,2  “  The  religion  which  had 

2  For  a  full  discussion  and  evidencing  of  this  entire  question 


LIVE  A  PROGRESSIVE  LIFE 


57 


shown  God  to  mankind,  so  as  before  he  had  not 
been  conceived,  the  same  religion  showed  man 
to  himself,  so  as  before  he  had  not  been  imag¬ 
ined,  in  the  greatness  of  his  nature,  in  his  im¬ 
mortality.”  “  In  regard  to  this  conception  of  the 
soul,  its  dignity  and  worth,  the  race  has  been  a 
new  one,  since  Jesus  taught  it,  and  so  far  as  his 
religion  has  gone.” 

As  the  religion  of  Jesus  gave  birth  to  a  “  new 
conception  of  man,”  so  did  it  give  rise  to  a  new 
conception  of  woman.  “  Just  so  soon,  and  just 
so  far,  as  Christianity  gained  its  place  in  the  em¬ 
pire,  the  position  of  woman,  social  and  legal,  in¬ 
stantaneously  improved;  and  this  was  the  effect 
of  direct,  immediate,  constant  pressure,  from  the 
religion  brought  by  Jesus.” 

Says  our  writer  further,  “  Of  the  universality 
of  slavery  in  the  world  into  which  this  new  reli¬ 
gion  entered,  you  need  not  be  reminded.”  But 
the  times  have  changed  from  the  day  when  one- 
half  of  the  Roman  population  were  slaves  —  the 
race  has  progressed,  and  slavery,  in  its  cruder 
forms,  forever  has  been  abolished  from  the  civ¬ 
ilized  nations.  “  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
God’s  affectionate  and  watchful  fatherhood  of  all, 
the  brotherhood  of  disciples,  the  mutual  duty  and 

see  “  The  Divine  Origin  of  Christianity — Indicated  by  its  His¬ 
torical  Effects,”  by  Richard  Storrs,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


58  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

common  immortality  of  poor  and  rich  —  these 
were  the  forces  before  which  slavery  inevitably 
fell.”  Through  the  preaching  of  the  Carpenter’s 
Son  labor  has  been  elevated  to  a  new  dignity. 
That  life  of  work  which  in  former  days  was  as¬ 
signed  to  the  slaves  and  by  them  despised  and 
counted  a  shame  and  a  curse,  by  the  teaching  of 
that  one  who  said,  “  My  Father  worketh  hitherto 
and  I  work,”  has  been  raised  to  the  divine  priv¬ 
ilege  of  service,  which  is  a  command  laid  upon 
all  men  and  all  classes. 

Says  Lyman  Abbott,3  “  He  reversed  the 
world’s  standard  of  values.  He  taught  that 
wealth  consists  in  character,  not  in  possession. 
He  reversed  the  world’s  measure  of  greatness, 
He  that  is  greatest  among  you  he  shall  be  your 
servant.” 

Everywhere  to-day  where  Christianity  is 
taught  and  followed,  the  emphasis  is  laid  on  serv¬ 
ice,  not  for  self,  but  for  our  fellows.  “  Praying 
is  seeking  strength  for  service;  psalm-singing  is 
giving  thanks  for  the  privilege  of  serving;  but  the 
service  is  in  hospitals,  mission  schools,  church 
schools,  college  settlements,  boys’  clubs,  girls’ 
clubs,  political  and  social  reforms  —  a  thousand 
philanthropies,  some  material,  some  intellectual, 
some  spiritual;  but  all  seeking  one  great  end  — 

3  “  Christianity  and  Social  Problems,”  Lyman  Abbott,  p.  20. 


LIVE  A  PROGRESSIVE  LIFE  59 


the  promotion  of  human  welfare  and  human  hap¬ 
piness.”  4 

Even  the  governments  of  the  world’s  nations, 
where  the  religion  of  Christ  has  made  itself  felt, 
have  been  changed  in  the  purpose  and  object  of 
their  existence.  In  the  older  nations  and  in  the 
former  time,  the  people  existed  for  the  sake  of 
the  State  —  it  was  the  people  who  were  the  serv¬ 
ants  and  the  State  which  was  the  served;  to-day 
it  is  a  common  and  well-recognized  principle  of 
political  science  that  the  government  exists  for  the 
sake  of  the  people,  and  is  to  be  such  a  govern¬ 
ment  as  shall  best  serve  the  greatest  number. 

Nor  could  we  pass  over  this  general  progress 
which  has  been  experienced  in  every  department 
of  human  affairs,  under  the  vivifying  touch  of  the 
spirit  of  Christ’s  religion,  without  speaking  a  few 
plain  words  on  a  much  mistaken  matter.  The 
statement  has  gone  forth  and  has  been  accepted 
from  of  old,  that  the  religion  of  Christ,  the 
church  and  the  clergy,  have  been  the  great  op¬ 
ponents  of  intellectual  growth  and  progress. 
Take  the  narrowest,  most  positive  form  which  the 
Christian  religion  has  perhaps  ever  assumed,  the 
Church  of  Rome,  and  do  we  not  find  in  her  midst 
spirits  who  have  caught  and  been  influenced  by 
this  progressive  spirit  of  the  religion  of  Christ? 

4  Ibid.,  p.  33. 


6o  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


There  was  Wycliffe,  who  was  the  “  morning  star 
of  the  Reformation  Huss,  the  promoter  of  lib¬ 
erty  of  thought;  Luther,  the  strength  of  the 
liberal  movement  in  the  sixteenth  century.  While 
the  mediaeval  and  even  the  modern  church  has 
been  like  the  old  Jewish  church,  in  its  attempt  to 
put  the  new  wine  of  progress  into  the  old  skins 
of  set  form,  yet  there  have  been  glorious  excep¬ 
tions  to  this  and  these  exceptions  by  those  who 
were  the  followers  of  the  religion  of  Christ. 

Witness  the  part  the  monks  and  the  monasteries 
have  played  in  the  preservation  of  knowledge  and 
the  making  of  books;  witness  the  part  the  Puritan 
has  played  in  the  educational  system  of  America. 
“  All  the  early  settlers  of  New  England  paid 
great  attention  to  instructing  their  children;  first 
at  home  or  in  the  ministers’  houses,  and  then  in 
public  schools.”  “  When  the  Puritan  spirit  be¬ 
gan  to  decline  there  was  a  falling  off  in  the  schools 
and  an  increase  of  illiteracy;  but  the  love  of  learn¬ 
ing  never  died  out,  and  the  free  schools  never 
were  abandoned.”  5  The  motto  of  the  Puritans 
was  “  Give  light  and  the  darkness  will  dispel  it¬ 
self.  Give  education  and  everything  else  will 
right  itself  in  time.”  And  observe  that  at  this 
period  of  our  nation’s  history  the  action  of  the 

5  “  The  Puritan  in  England,  Holland  and  America,”  by  Doug¬ 
las  Campbell,  Vol.  I,  p.  30. 


LIVE  A  PROGRESSIVE  LIFE  6 1 


government  was  virtually  the  action  of  the 
church.  Witness  to-day  the  vital  relation  that 
Christian  missions  everywhere  bear  to  general 
education;  in  every  country  or  section  of  country 
where  the  missionary  goes,  the  school  goes  with 
him;  and  then  cease  to  be  discouraged  by  the 
ignorant  statement  of  the  ignorant,  that  the  reli¬ 
gion  of  Christ  has  always  been  opposed  to  edu¬ 
cation  and  the  progress  of  knowledge.  He  who 
in  this  particular  feels  inclined  to  criticise  the 
critics,  has  ample  reason  to  do  so,  for  the  real 
facts  of  the  case  are  that  the  greatest  opponents 
to  the  progress  of  science  and  invention  have  been 
from  the  ranks  of  the  scientists. 

“  The  great  physicians  and  philosophers  of  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  Huygens, 
Bernouilli,  Cassini,  Leibnitz,  most  of  them  disci¬ 
ples  of  Descartes,  were  opposed  to  Newton’s 
System  of  Gravitation.”  6  After  Harvey’s  dis¬ 
covery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  it  was  the 
physicians  of  his  time,  who  were  opposed  to  him 
and  envied  him.  Dr.  Jenner  and  his  views  on 
vaccination  were  opposed  by  men  of  his  own  call¬ 
ing.  It  was  the  Academy  of  Paris  that  at¬ 
tempted  to  overthrow  the  microscopic  discover¬ 
ies  of  Swammerdam  and  Leeuwenhoeck,  a  cen- 

6  Vid.  here  et  seq.,  “  The  Philosophical  Basis  of  Theism,”  by 
Samuel  Harris,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  pp.  319-344. 


62  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


tury  after  they  were  made,  with  the  sneer,  “  One 
can  generally  see  with  the  microscope  whatever 
one  imagines !  ” 

Observe  this,  that  when  the  doctrine  of  evolu¬ 
tion  was  introduced,  it  was  opposed  by  scientists 
as  well  as  by  theologians;  and  it  was  accepted  by 
theologians  as  well  as  by  scientists;  Professor 
Huxley’s  biography,  written  by  his  son,  affords 
ample  and  interesting  testimony  to  this  fact. 

Now  if  we  turn  from  the  negative  to  the  posi¬ 
tive  side  of  this  question,  we  find  from  the  earliest 
times  to  the  very  latest  hour  that  churchmen, 
clergymen,  believers  in  and  followers  of  the  re¬ 
ligion  of  Christ  have  been  identified  with  the  pro¬ 
motion  and  progress  of  every  form  of  human 
knowledge,  whether  in  science,  politics,  philoso¬ 
phy,  history  or  what  not.  Such  names  as  Sir 
Humphrey  Davy,  Linnaeus,  Sir  Isaac  Newton, 
Kepler,  Lord  Bacon  and  a  host  of  others  might 
be  called  to  the  witness-stand  to  testify,  impar¬ 
tially  and  equally,  to  their  labors  for  the  progress 
of  human  knowledge,  and  to  their  belief  in  the 
Christ  and  his  religion. 

The  principle  of  progress  which  Jesus  Christ 
is  here  establishing  finds  its  illustration  and  ap¬ 
plication  in  those  fields  of  action  he  is  about  to 
mention.  This  passage  is  introductory  to  those 
treated  of  in  the  rest  of  this  fifth  chapter  of  Mat- 


LIVE  A  PROGRESSIVE  LIFE  63 


thew.  In  the  twentieth  verse  he  states  the  rela¬ 
tion  of  the  individual  to  the  principle  of  prog¬ 
ress.  What  is  true  of  the  mass  is  true  of  the  in¬ 
dividual;  the  life  of  the  follower  of  the  religion 
Jesus  taught  must  live  a  progressive  life. 

This  is  shown  in  the  life  and  practice  of  the 
Master  himself.  It  is  sometimes  represented 
that  the  religion  of  Jesus  is  completed;  that  noth¬ 
ing  can  be  added  to  it  and  nothing  can  be  taken 
from  it.  This  is  true  in  the  sense  that  we  have 
the  complete  flower  in  the  good  seed,  and  only 
in  this  sense.  This  is  true  literally  for  those  who 
regard  the  religion  of  Christ  as  a  Procrustean 
bed  into  which  the  man  must  be  fitted,  rather  than 
a  living  germ  which,  being  planted  in  the  man, 
adapts  itself  to  the  man  and  the  man  to  itself, 
modifying  and  determining  the  entire  life,  growth 
and  progress  of  the  individual.  The  man  who 
holds  the  religion  of  Christ  as  a  thing  rather  than 
a  power,  as  a  form  rather  than  a  life,  has  not 
yet  attained  to  his  teaching. 

That  this  is  true  is  shown  by  the  Master’s  rela¬ 
tion  to  the  long-established,  highly  respected 
forms  and  institutions  in  vogue  in  his  day.  The 
Sabbath  was  as  old  as  Creation;  it  is  a  command 
for  rest  and  worship  one  day  in  seven,  applying 
to  all  times  and  all  peoples.  Jesus  taught  a  new 
meaning  and  way  of  observing  the  Sabbath.  The 


6 4  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

outcome  of  the  old  formal  observance  was  slav¬ 
ery:  the  teaching  of  the  Master  is  life  and  liberty. 

“  The  attitude  of  Jesus  toward  these  outward 
observances  seems  to  have  been  at  one  with  the 
attitude  of  the  prophets.  He  seems  to  have  con¬ 
stantly  pointed  out  the  danger  inherent  in  all  ex- 
ternalism,  in  the  use  of  all  forms  of  symbol, 
whether  material  or  intellectual,  the  danger  of 
transforming  a  means  into  an  end,  of  resting  in 
the  seen  instead  of  reaching  through  the  seen  to 
the  unseen,  of  substituting  the  visible  image  for 
the  invisible  idea,  the  letter  for  the  spirit.” 
“  Brought  to  book  again  and  again  for  breaking 
the  Sabbath,  he  defends  himself  by  the  quiet  as¬ 
sertion,  (  The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man  and  not 
man  for  the  Sabbath,’  an  assertion  which  lays  its 
ax  to  the  root  of  all  sacramentalism.”  7 

A  like  lesson  is  given  us  in  Jesus’  relation  to 
the  temple.  The  temple  idea  is  as  old  as  the 
race  —  it  had  its  fixed  forms  and  meanings.  In¬ 
terpreted,  it  read  a  localized  deity,  some  places 
holy  and  some  things  holy.  Jesus  had  little  sym¬ 
pathy  with  these  forms;  they  were  too  narrow 
to  accommodate  the  new  and  larger  growth  of 
the  Gospel  spirit.  He  taught,  “  Ye  are  God’s 
temple  all  places  are  holy  and  all  persons  may 

7  “  The  Religion  of  Christ  in  the  Twentieth  Century,”  Anon., 
pp.  58-123. 


LIVE  A  PROGRESSIVE  LIFE  65 


be  holy.  “  He  foretold  the  destruction  of  the 
temple,  and  subverted  the  very  foundations  of 
this  idolatrous  faith  by  declaring  that  God  can  be 
worshiped  at  any  time  and  in  any  place,  if  the 
heart  in  sincerity  and  simplicity  seeks  for  Him.”  8 

This  is  the  same  idea  which  the  Master’s  fol¬ 
lower,  the  apostle  Paul,  set  for  himself  and  ex¬ 
pressed  in  the  maxim,  “  Forgetting  those  things 
which  are  behind,  and  looking  unto  those  which 
are  before.”  This  idea  of  progress  is  the 
idea  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  has 
set  for  his  readers :  “  Therefore  leaving  the  prin¬ 
ciples  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  let  us  go  on  unto 
perfection;  not  laying  again  the  foundation  of  re¬ 
pentance  from  dead  works,  and  of  faith  toward 
God,  of  the  doctrine  of  baptisms  and  of  laying 
on  of  hands,  and  of  resurrection  from  the  dead 
and  of  eternal  judgment.” 

The  meaning  of  this  is  that  there  is  to  be  prog¬ 
ress  in  idea,  teaching,  practice  and  religious  liv¬ 
ing. 

The  effect  of  progress  on  the  unprogressive 
is  evidenced  in  the  story  of  progress  in  the  entire 
world  of  life.  For  the  unyielding,  the  unpro¬ 
gressive,  those  who  will  not  recognize  life’s  law 
and  obey  it,  progress  means  pain,  struggle,  pro- 

8  “  Christianity  and  Social  Problems,”  by  Lyman  Abbott,  p.  22. 

9  Heb.  vi,  i-2. 


66  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


test  and  elimination.  So  has  it  been  with  the 
races  of  animals,  so  with  the  plant  life,  so  with 
man  in  every  phase  of  his  activity.  “  Except 
your  righteousness  exceed  the  righteousness  of 
the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  ye  shall  in  no  wise  en¬ 
ter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.” 

The  promise  of  progress  to  the  progressive  is 
along  this  same  road  of  pain  and  struggle,  the 
inevitable  accompaniment  of  all  change;  doubts 
within  and  opposition  from  without,  but  issuing 
in  ever  new  births,  larger  life  —  something  to 
learn,  to  know  and  to  do  for  the  ages  of  ages. 
Thus,  with  the  constantly  enlarging  sphere  of 
knowledge  and  privilege  comes  the  constantly  en¬ 
larging  responsibility,  until  life  is  religion  and  re¬ 
ligion  is  life. 


CHAPTER  IV 


LIVE  A  PEACEABLE  LIFE 
Matt,  v,  21-26 

IN  those  utterances  of  Christ,  which  follow  in 
the  next  three  sections,  we  have  an  illustra¬ 
tion  and  an  application  of  that  principle  which 
has  just  been  propounded:  that  men  are  to  live 
the  progressive  life. 

Jesus  takes  three  commands  from  the  old  law 
of  Moses,  the  law  with  which  the  Jews  were  fa¬ 
miliar,  and  shows  how  these  plain  commands 
must  be  interpreted  and  applied  spiritually  if  a 
man  is  really  to  have  that  righteousness  of  life 
which  he  came  to  establish.  Being  an  interpreter 
of  the  law  of  righteousness,  a  teacher  of  man¬ 
kind,  and  a  corrector  of  abuses,  the  Master  had 
again  and  again  to  show  men  that  the  law  must 
be  interpreted  and  made  to  apply  in  spirit  and 
truly,  if  the  law  was  to  be  kept.  What  a  man 
was  to  seek  was  not  form-righteousness,  which  the 
Pharisees  had  reduced  to  a  science,  but  fact- 
'righteousness.  One  time,  as  the  Master  was 
going  through  Perea,  there  came  running  toward 
him  a  young  man,  a  ruler  in  the  place  and  an 

67 


68 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


earnest,  honest  inquirer,  who  asked  him:  “  What 
must  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life?  ” 

“  You  must  keep  the  commandments,”  replied 
the  Master. 

“Which?”  asked  the  zealous  seeker,  thinking 
that  there  might  be  one  he  had  overlooked. 

“  Those  very  commandments  you  know  already 
—  which  are  summed  up  in  the  words,  ‘  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.’  ” 

“  But,”  answered  the  youth,  u  all  these  have 
I  kept  from  boyhood.” 

So  he  had,  as  his  fathers  and  neighbors  had 
kept  them,  as  you  and  I  keep  them,  after  the  let¬ 
ter  and  the  outward  form.  Then  the  Master  did 
for  his  sake  just  what  he  is  here  doing  for  his 
disciples’  sake,  showed  the  young  man  that  the 
law  was  a  matter  of  heart  and  spirit,  a  matter 
of  the  inner,  secret  life  —  and  included  not  only 
doing  nothing  to  interfere  with  the  neighbor’s  liv¬ 
ing  his  own  life  and  fulfilling  his  own  destiny,  but 
besides  this  included  doing  all  that  he  could  to 
help  his  neighbor  live  his  life  as  he  ought. 

You  have  doubtless  heard,  as  I  have  heard,  a 
man  say,  “  The  Ten  Commandments  are  enough 
for  me;  if  I  keep  these  I  am  satisfied,  and  be¬ 
lieve  all  will  go  well  with  me  here  and  hereafter.” 
And  the  answer  is  true,  and  accords  with  the  Mas¬ 
ter’s  teaching,  but  the  question  arises,  “  Are  not 


LIVE  A  PEACEABLE  LIFE 


69 


the  Ten  Commandments  too  much  for  you?” 
See  how  the  Master  interprets  them,  and  then 
behold  their  scope  and  depth  of  meaning. 

In  the  passage  we  have  before  us  we  have  the 
Master’s  interpretation  of  one  of  the  ten  words 
of  Moses,  and  that  one  of  the  simplest,  the  most 
obvious  and  the  most  universal.  “  Do  not  mur¬ 
der,”  is  a  command  that  most  respectable  people 
think  they  have  fully  kept  —  but  see  what  Christ 
makes  that  to  mean;  and  “  Thou  shalt  not  kill  ” 
becomes  “  Thou  shalt  not  be  angry.”  Jesus  is 
here  placing  before  us  a  picture  of  the  passionate 
man,  the  man  who  is  ripe  for  murder. 

The  world’s  view  of  that  man  is  very  ancient 
and  very  simple.  “  Ye  have  heard,  of  olden 
time,  thou  shalt  not  kill.”  This  command  is  one 
of  the  plainest  primer  principles  of  the  laws  of 
all  peoples.  “  The  right  of  an  individual  to 
life,”  1  is  a  sine  qua  non  to  even  the  simplest  civ¬ 
ilization.  “  If  there  be  any  rights  at  all  this  must 
be  one  of  them,  for  life  is  that  essential  condition 
without  which  no  other  right  can  be  exercised. 
Accordingly,  usage  and  law  in  all  nations  en¬ 
deavor  to  protect  it.” 

I  have  never  heard  of  a  nation,  either  ancient 
or  modern,  nor  of  a  tribe,  however  primitive, 
which  has  not  had  some  form  of  this  law.  No 

1  “  Political  Science,”  Theodore  D.  Woolsey,  §  21. 


70 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


one  will  deny  either  the  propriety  or  the  force  of 
this  law  —  it  is  clearly  recognized  in  the  Old  Tes¬ 
tament  law  for  Israel,  was  well  known  among  all 
ancient  peoples,  and  even  in  Africa,  Patagonia 
or  among  the  Andaman  islanders  it  obtains  with 
varying  modifications  and  conditions  of  applica¬ 
tion  —  but  in  its  essential  form  it  is  a  law  of  all 
peoples. 

Civil  law,  however,  applies  only  to  man’s  out¬ 
ward  conduct,  to  his  overt  acts.  One  may  de¬ 
spise,  condemn,  hate  his  fellow  as  he  will,  but  if 
this  inward  desire  fails  of  outward  expression  the 
law  has  been  observed.  This  is  man’s  interpre¬ 
tation  of  the  law  against  murder.  According  to 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world,  one  who  has  not  vio¬ 
lated  the  letter  of  the  law  is  innocent  before  the 
law;  but,  says  the  Master,  what  is  true  for  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  is  not  true  for  the  king¬ 
dom  of  heaven,  but  the  law  must  be  interpreted 
and  made  to  apply  deeper  than  overt  acts. 

So  Jesus  gives  his  view.  The  soul  of  mur¬ 
der  is  anger,  the  seed  of  murder  is  anger,  the  sin 
of  murder  is  anger  —  and  a  man  must  keep  his 
heart  right  toward  his  brother.  The  passionate 
man,  according  to  Christ’s  definition,  is  the  man 
easily  angry,  that  is  “  angry  without  cause.” 
There  is  such  a  thing  as  justifiable  anger  on  the 
part  of  a  good  man.  The  apostle  admonishes, 


LIVE  A  PEACEABLE  LIFE 


7i 


“  Be  angry  and  sin  not.”  I  have  heard  that 
Frederick  W.  Robertson,  the  Brighton  preacher, 
one  day  on  seeing  a  dissolute  and  evil  man  pass¬ 
ing  by  with  a  pure  young  girl  as  his  companion, 
was  so  roused  and  stirred  at  the  sight  that  he 
clenched  his  hands  until  the  nails  entered  into 
the  flesh.  Such  a  feeling  on  the  part  of  such 
a  man  was  not  to  his  shame  but  to  his  honor. 
A  while  ago  I  read  in  a  novel  of  an  English 
Colonel’s  treatment  of  a  boy  who  served  as 
his  lackey,  an  account  that  fairly  made  my  blood 
boil.  The  story  runs  that  two  men  were  rivals 
for  the  hand  of  a  young  woman;  the  one  was 
a  colonel  in  the  British  army  and  the  other  was 
a  captain  in  the  colonial  forces.  The  colonel 
gained  possession  of  a  young  lad  who  had  served 
as  body-servant  to  the  captain;  this  boy  he  abused, 
degraded,  debauched  and  made  a  drunkard,  in 
order  to  work  his  evil  schemes  and  to  irritate  and 
revenge  himself  on  the  captain.  Here  is  ground 
for  justifiable  anger  on  the  part  of  any  man.  In¬ 
deed,  the  man  who  could  look  upon  such  a  deed 
without  having  his  blood  boil  and  free  from  the 
desire  to  correct  the  abuse  and  punish  the  of¬ 
fender,  would  be  a  dead,  dumb,  sapless,  travesty 
of  manhood. 

The  Master  himself,  when  he  beheld  the  deg¬ 
radation  and  perversion  of  the  temple  by  the 


72 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


traffickers  in  sheep  and  oxen  who  were  carrying 
on  their  commercial  enterprises  in  the  name  of 
religion,  was  so  incensed  against  them  that,  mak¬ 
ing  a  scourge  of  small  cords,  he  drove  them  out, 
saying,  “  Make  not  my  Father’s  house  an  house 
of  merchandise.”  Whatever  the  learned  and  art¬ 
ful  commentators  may  say  of  this  scene,  the  com¬ 
mon-sense  people  will  ever  interpret  it  to  mean 
that  he  was  justifiably  angry  against  the  hypo¬ 
crites. 

Yes,  injustice,  wanton  cruelty,  heartless  oppres¬ 
sion  of  the  weak  by  the  strong,  coupled  with  pie- 
tistic  pharisaism  merits  and  receives  from  honest 
and  right-minded  men  just  and  righteous  wrath. 

The  passionate  man  here  referred  to  is  not 
this  man,  but  the  man  who  is  uncontrolled,  not 
master  of  himself,  whose  temper  is  ever  on  the 
hair  trigger,  who  goes  about  with  a  chip  on  his 
shoulder,  and  his  eye  open  for  infringement  of 
his  rights  and  trespassers  on  his  preserves.  Such 
a  man  is  like  one  of  these  five-cent  mouse  traps, 
so  delicately  and  sensitively  set  that  if  you  jar  it 
'in  the  least  degree,  handle  it  without  the  utmost 
caution,  breathe  upon  it  more  than  ordinary,  snap 
it  goes,  and  some  one  is  hurt.  A  look  and  he  is 
incensed,  a  word  and  he  is  in  a  rage;  the  slightest 
crossing  of  his  will  and  he  is  ready  for  violence. 
Such  is  the  passionate  man,  the  Master  teaches, 


LIVE  A  PEACEABLE  LIFE 


73 


and  the  peril  of  such  a  heart  and  temper  is  fatal. 
It  results  in  bad  morals ;  such  a  man  is  angry  with 
his  brother  without  cause.  The  first  recorded 
instance  in  history  of  such  a  man  shows  that  it  re¬ 
sulted  disastrously.  Cain  was  a  man  of  this 
character  —  and  because  of  his  passionate  heart, 
his  angry  spirit,  he  hated  his  brother,  and  finally 
committed  outwardly  that  which  had  been  born 
inwardly,  murder  of  his  brother.  Now  the  man 
who  holds  his  heart  in  the  attitude  of  anger  and 
hate  toward  his  brother  is  the  man  who  already 
does  his  brother  a  wrong,  and  the  man  who  is 
in  constant  peril  of  an  open  act  of  injustice  and 
injury. 

The  psychological  course  of  such  a  feeling  is 
traced  in  the  twenty-second  verse  of  this  chapter. 
The  man  who  harbors  such  a  feeling  toward  his 
brother  is  the  man  who  must  give  expression  to 
the  feeling;  the  first  expression  is  to  hold  his 
brother  lightly  and  in  contempt  —  of  this  feeling 
is  born  the  contemptuous  expression,  “Raca”; 
by  this  expression  is  kindled  another  more  bitter, 
“Thou  fool,” — he  condemns  his  brother.  Now 
the  subtle  poison  of  anger  is  present  and  will  work 
its  deadly  spell  —  first  the  secret  springs  of 
thought  are  poisoned,  then  the  dark  fountain 
bursts  forth  in  the  form  of  bitter  words,  then 
follows  the  contemptuous,  unjust,  perhaps  deadly 


74 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


deeds.  The  sin  which  is  within  the  heart  hath 
conceived  and  brought  forth  its  baneful  progeny 
—  death. 

The  sin  of  murder  is  within  the  heart;  the 
source  of  murder  is  anger  —  the  law  against 
murder  must  be  kept  in  the  secret  places  of  the 
man.  Now,  proceeds  the  Master,  in  his  ever  log¬ 
ical,  orderly  way,  he  who  holds  this  relation  to 
his  brother  is  in  the  fire  of  hell.  How  many  in¬ 
stances  we  have  in  our  daily  life  of  brothers, 
neighbors,  friends,  who  because  of  this  suscepti¬ 
bility  to  anger,  this  passionate  disposition,  dwell 
in  a  constant  state  of  animosity,  hostility,  litiga¬ 
tion  and  legal  warfare  with  those  with  whom  they 
should  be  at  peace. 

As  I  was  meditating  upon  this  theme,  there  came 
into  my  hands  an  illustration  of  the  very  fact  in 
point.  It  is  taken  from  a  Philadelphia  newspaper. 
It  reads:  “After  having  been  dragged  through 
the  courts  for  sixty  years  the  lawsuit  of  A.  C. 
against  W.  Z.  was  finally  decided  in  court  here  to¬ 
day.  The  suit  was  over  the  ownership  of  a  strip 
of  land  worth  about  five  dollars.  The  men  and 
their  families,  though  neighbors,  have  not  spoken 
to  each  other  for  over  half  a  century.  The  case 
has  been  in  the  Supreme  Court  at  least  three  times, 
and  no  less  than  thirty  thousand  dollars  has  been 
spent  in  lawyers’  fees  and  other  costs  in  the  litiga- 


LIVE  A  PEACEABLE  LIFE 


75 


tion.  When  the  suits  involving  the  question  of 
damages  were  tried  the  verdict  never  exceeded  six 
dollars.”  The  cause  of  such  silly,  childish  and 
wicked  conduct  on  the  part  of  men  is  a  bad  heart 
and  anger  against  the  brother.  The  case  itself 
has  absolutely  no  merits.  How  many  instances 
of  like  import  might  be  adduced,  did  we  choose 
to  seek  them.  The  Jones  County  Calf  Case  is 
an  instance  of  like  character.  Some  may  not  be 
aware  that  the  classic  chancery  suit  of  Jarndyce 
against  Jarndyce,  satirized  in  Dickens’  “  Bleak 
House,”  is  an  actual  case  taken  from  the  English 
law  reports.  Not  a  day  passes  that  our  news¬ 
papers  do  not  furnish  practical  illustration  of  the 
truth  of  the  Master’s  teaching. 

Now  what  is  the  feeling  in  the  heart,  the  atti¬ 
tude  of  brother  toward  brother,  the  relation  be¬ 
tween  two  who  entertain  such  feelings  toward 
each  other?  Is  it  not  rightly  described  as  “  the 
hell  of  fire”?  A  sight  of  our  opponent  sends 
a  shock  through  the  system;  the  sound  of  his 
voice  burns  like  vitriol;  his  success  fills  us  with 
hate ;  his  failure  stirs  us  with  unholy  glee.  What 
now  becomes  of  the  great  law  of  God,  “  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself”? 

What  is  the  inner  state  of  the  man  who  hates 
his  brother?  Is  it  calm,  sweet,  benevolent,  com¬ 
forting,  cheering,  elevating,  promotive  of  his  own 


7  6  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

or  his  brother’s  good?  Is  it  not  rather  like  an 
acid,  a  constant  irritation,  a  fire  of  hell  within? 
And  what  must  be  the  heart  and  spirit  of  that 
man  who  is  so  angry  with  his  brother  that  he 
would  kill  him?  What  is  the  secret  condition  of 
that  one  who  kills  his  brother  and  is  glad?  What 
a  restless,  tossing  sea  of  emotions,  what  a  dance 
of  the  devils,  what  a  Walpurgis  night  must  en¬ 
wrap  the  soul,  and  craze  the  mind  of  a  man  pre¬ 
paring  to  do  such  a  deed ! 

And  what  of  the  one  who  kills  and  is  sorry? 
Can  anything  ever  right  the  wrong?  You  have 
taken  away  that  which  cannot  be  restored;  robbed 
that  which  cannot  be  returned;  broken  that  which 
cannot  be  mended.  To  be  in  the  state  of  mind 
resultant  upon  such  a  deed,  is  to  welter  in  the 
fire  of  hell  —  with  its  remorse,  its  fear,  dread, 
terror,  restlessness,  unquiet  —  with  its  absence  of 
peace,  joy,  light,  love.  Can  anything  make  this 
beautiful,  peaceful  world  other  than  a  hell,  to 
that  passionate  man  who  has  murdered?  This 
is  the  ultimate  peril  of  the  passionate  man,  whose 
spirit  has  led  him  to  the  end  of  the  way  —  and 
this  is  the  relative  peril  of  the  man  of  anger,  who 
will  not  heed  the  words  of  Christ. 

But  advancing  a  step  higher,  ascending  into  the 
realm  of  the  more  spiritual,  our  Teacher  says  pas¬ 
sion  is  incompatible  with  true  piety;  these  twain 


LIVE  A  PEACEABLE  LIFE 


77 


cannot  dwell  in  the  same  house;  anger  in  the 
heart  makes  a  worthless  religion.  The  absurdity 
of  an  angry  worshiper  is  pictured  in  the  two  fol¬ 
lowing  verses:  God  is  love;  hate  cannot  dwell 
in  the  presence  of  love.  He  who  sits  in  a  church 
service  and  bears  malice  and  hate  toward  an¬ 
other,  who  has  the  unforgiving  and  bitter  spirit, 
had  better  bide  at  home.  Such  an  one  is  a  “  per¬ 
sona  non  grata  ”  at  the  court  of  heaven.  As  well 
might  the  devil,  because  he  has  a  good  voice,  join 
in  the  choiring  of  the  angels  before  the  throne  of 
God  as  for  an  angry  heart  to  sing  praises  in  the 
temple  —  no  acceptable  music  can  issue  from  such 
inharmonious  sources.  The  man  is  seeking  to 
right  with  words  that  which  he  has  wronged  with 
deeds;  seeking  to  correct  by  a  fiction  that  which  can 
only  be  righted  by  a  fact.  Such  a  man  is  false,  un¬ 
true,  a  hypocrite;  he  is  but  adding  wrong  to  wrong, 
insult  to  injury.  Lie  is  wronging  first  himself,  next 
his  brother,  but  most  and  always  the  God  and 
Father  of  them  both.  Observe  the  viewpoint  of 
the  Master  changes  a  little  here,  the  obligation  is 
laid  not  on  the  offended  but  on  the  offender  —  the 
text  reads,  “  If  thou  rememberest  that  thy  brother 
hath  aught  against  thee.”  The  right-minded 
man  will  go  more  than  half  the  way  to  right  the 
\vrong,  and  to  dwell  in  harmonious  relations  with 
his  brother,  for  the  sake  of  the  common  Father 


78  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 
of  them  both. 

Then  follows  the  counsel,  light-clear,  emphatic, 
explicit.  Set  right  the  heart,  then  practice  your 
religion.  When  you  come  into  the  temple,  with 
your  offering  to  God,  whether  of  goods,  or  words, 
or  praise,  or  promise  or  what  not  —  leave  them 
there,  do  not  offer  them  in  vain,  go  thy  way,  “  be 
reconciled  to  thy  brother,”  then  return  and  offer 
the  fact  to  God,  and  be  assured  that  His  face  will 
smile  upon  you,  and  His  peace  will  possess  your 
soul.  The  best  worship  to  God  is  the  justice 
done  to  the  brother.  Could  anything  more  point¬ 
edly  emphasize  the  truth  that  the  religion  which 
Jesus  taught  is  a  religion  of  fact  and  not  a  reli¬ 
gion  of  form?  Be  able  to  recite  the  deeds  ac¬ 
ceptable  to  God,  and  forgetfulness  of  the  creeds 
will  not  offend.  Have  the  substance  of  religion 
and  the  forms  will  take  care  of  themselves. 

What  now  thinkest  thou  of  that  simple  law 
of  murder,  according  to  the  rendering  of  Christ? 
Hast  thou  kept  it?  Canst  thou  keep  it?  Then 
blessed  art  thou  of  God. 

The  Master  then  makes  the  application  of 
the  desirability  of  a  peaceable  heart  for  the  com¬ 
mon  affairs  of  a  common  life.  Religion  is  life 
—  life  is  religion.  So  common  a  thing,  so  whole¬ 
some  a  thing,  so  practical  a  thing  is  religion  that 
it  applies  to  and  mingles  with  the  everyday  affairs 


LIVE  A  PEACEABLE  LIFE 


79 


of  the  everyday  life.  That  which  he  teaches  in 
the  two  following  verses  men  call  Ethics  —  it  is 
merely  a  practical  wisdom  for  the  common  life, 
and  yet  who  can  gainsay  its  excellence. 

The  special  term  “  brother  ”  is  now  abandoned, 
its  meaning  being  established  and  taken  for 
granted. 

Living  means  differences,  differences  mean  fric¬ 
tion,  friction  means  irritation,  heat,  pain  —  be 
aware  of  this,  be  prepared  for  this.  These  are 
the  accidents  and  incidents  of  life,  unavoidable, 
certain.  There  are  aggravating  and  irritating  ex¬ 
periences  every  day,  and  when  we  least  expect 
them.  There  are  many  men  and  many  minds; 
differences  of  circumstances,  estate,  opinion,  char¬ 
acter,  practice,  religion.  Play  the  part  of  the  wise 
man,  says  our  Teacher,  and  have  a  peaceable 
heart,  for  a  peaceable  heart  is  the  best  prepara¬ 
tion  for  living  in  such  a  world.  And  yet,  live  as 
you  will,  live  the  best  you  know  how,  differences 
will  arise,  the  best  of  men  will  find  themselves 
opposed  by  an  adversary,  one  hostile,  unfriendly. 
Should  you  find  yourself  in  this  condition,  the 
Master  tells  us  to  come  to  some  agreement  with 
him,  as  quickly  as  possible.  It  may  be  at  a  loss 
of  some  of  your  rights,  your  privileges,  your  com¬ 
fort,  your  money  —  but  agree  on  the  best  terms 
possible.  Is  not  this  the  most  common  sense  and 


8o 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


practical  counsel  that  could  be  given?  Does  it 
not  sound  like  some  good  legal  advisor,  seeking 
his  clients’  best  interests?  Is  it  not  an  evidence 
of  our  Lord’s  deep  knowledge  of  men  and  the 
world?  Is  it  not  the  counsel  that  the  wise  and 
prudent  man  will  follow?  Is  it  not  in  the  long 
run,  the  safest  course  to  pursue? 

“  Agree  with  thine  adversary,”  says  the  Master, 
lest  thou  be  brought  to  utter  ruin.  Then  with 
skilled  hand  he  traces  the  course  that  so  many 
men,  unaware  or  unappreciative  of  his  words, 
have  followed  to  their  destruction.  “  Lest  the 
adversary  deliver  thee  to  the  judge,  the  judge  to 
the  officer,  and  thou  be  cast  into  prison.”  Right 
may  be  with  you,  justice  may  be  on  your  side,  but 
the  adversary  may  be  stronger,  more  influential, 
more  wealthy,  more  astute  than  thou,  and  such 
things  have  been  done  in  this  world  as  are  here 
described.  “  In  prison!  ”  behold  the  ruin  of  your 
happiness !  the  happiness  of  your  family,  your 
friends,  your  associates.  But  still  further,  the  ad¬ 
versary  is  not  content;  there  is  hate  and  bitterness 
in  his  heart  —  what  he  wants  is  your  complete 
destruction,  “  Thou  shalt  by  no  means  come  out 
thence  till  thoif  have  paid  the  last  farthing.” 
Counsel  fees,  costs  of  court,  case  gone  against  you, 
domestic  expenses  continuing,  the  little  hoard  you 
have  saved  exhausted;  behold!  ruin  of  your  es- 


LIVE  A  PEACEABLE  LIFE 


8 1 


tate.  How  many  a  man  can  certify  to  the  truth 
of  this  teaching,  learned  from  the  harsher,  cruder 
teacher,  Experience.  If  you  did  not  love  the  ad¬ 
versary  before,  you  do  not  now  love  him  better 
because  of  all  that  has  happened  to  you.  The 
little  breach  which  might  have  been  bridged  at 
the  beginning  has  now  grown  to  a  chasm  impos¬ 
sible  to  cross.  You  hate  him,  hate  him,  hate 
him  —  you  hate  his  and  those  associated  with  him 
in  this  wicked  business,  you  are  bitter  toward  men, 
toward  the  world,  toward  the  innocent  and  guilt¬ 
less,  your  heart  is  poisoned,  your  soul  is  on  fire 
—  your  entire  life  has  been  ruined.  This  same 
road  has  many  a  man  traveled  to  his  complete 
destruction.  Be  thou  wise;  enter  not  upon  it, 
“  agree  with  thine  adversary  quickly  while  thou  art 
with  him  in  the  way.” 

In  short,  live  the  peaceable  life,  because  the 
other,  the  life  of  the  brawler,  the  easily  angry, 
the  passionate  man,  results  in  bad  blood,  bad  man¬ 
ners,  bad  morals,  bad  religion  and  utter  ruin. 


CHAPTER  V 


LIVE  A  PURE  LIFE 
Matt,  v,  27-32 

THE  visible  is  born  of  the  invisible,  the 
audible  of  the  inaudible,  the  tangible  of  the 
intangible  and  the  material  of  the  immaterial. 
Everywhere  in  this  wide  world  of  phenomena, 
the  seen,  felt  and  heard  is  but  the  manifestation 
and  offspring  of  that  which  is  unseen,  impalpable 
and  in  secret.  We  walk  through  a  summer  field, 
mantled  with  green  and  spangled  with  flowers  of 
rainbow  hue,  vibrant  wfith  sound  and  palpitant 
with  all  forms  of  life.  That  symphony  of  sound, 
that  galaxy  of  glory,  that  ever-changing  pageant 
of  beauty  and  of  life,  is  altogether  a  product  of 
forces,  influences,  principles  —  secret,  silent  and 
unseen. 

History  with  its  reigns  and  dynasties,  its  courts 
and  councils,  its  wars  and  conquests,  its  ever  vary¬ 
ing  and  constantly  changing  scene  of  action,  is 
the  product  of  the  invisible,  the  spiritual,  the  per¬ 
sonal.  The  deeds  of  men  are  but  the  outward 
symbols  of  their  inward  thoughts. 

What  is  true  of  the  world  at  large  is  true  of 

82 


LIVE  A  PURE  LIFE 


83 


the  world  in  little;  what  is  true  of  the  mass  is 
true  of  the  man;  therefore  the  wise  men  of  old 
have  written  in  constantly  varying  form  the  eter¬ 
nal  truth,  “  Keep  with  all  diligence  thy  heart,  for 
out  of  it  are  the  issues  of  life.” 

And  therefore  our  Teacher,  in  this  passage, 
seeks  to  fix  the  thought  and  attention  of  his  hear¬ 
ers  on  the  transcendent  importance  of  keeping  the 
springs  of  their  lives  free  from  impurity  and  pol¬ 
lution.  In  few  and  simple  words  the  Master  at 
once  exhibits  to  his  learners  the  heights  of  purity 
to  which  they  are  to  climb.  He  begins  at  the 
foot  of  the  mountain,  by  calling  their  attention 
to  the  law  given  by  Moses  and  familiar  to  them 
from  the  earliest  years  of  their  childhood,  “  Thou 
shalt  not  commit  adultery.” 

This  law,  like  that  which  just  precedes  it, 
“  Thou  shalt  not  kill,”  belongs  to  the  primer  of 
legislation.  It  is  a  law  fundamental,  simple,  ob¬ 
vious,  universal  in  its  form.  We  can  say  with 
assurance  that  it  is  a  law  of  nature  and  a  law  of 
nations.  And  this  we  can  affirm,  in  spite  of  all 
that  has  been  said  and  written  concerning  the 
primitive  peoples,  and  the  aboriginal  savages. 

Every  nation  that  makes  a  claim  to  be  a  na¬ 
tion  has  some  law  regarding  this  matter  on  its 
statute  books,  and  even  those  peoples  who  have 
not  risen  to  the  dignity  of  written  laws  have  some 


84  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


form  of  a  common  and  unwritten  law  against  the 
practice  of  adultery.  That  is  to  say,  every  peo¬ 
ple  has  had  some  form  or  custom  regulating  the 
relations  between  the  sexes,  and  in  some  degree 
recognizing  the  sanctity  of  family  ties.  And  this 
we  affirm  so  confidently,  because  even  those  sex¬ 
ual  relations  wThich  seem  to  us  to  disregard  this 
law  are,  according  to  the  method  of  interpreta¬ 
tion  of  the  peoples  among  whom  they  prevail, 
considered  a  keeping  of  the  law;  since  the  world’s 
method  of  interpretation  is  that  the  law  against 
adultery  is  one  that  is  to  be  kept  not  internally 
and  in  the  spirit,  but  externally  and  after  the  out¬ 
ward  form.  Therefore,  while  we  may  be  speak¬ 
ing  of  a  people  or  tribe  like  the  Caribs,  the  Es¬ 
quimaux  or  the  Aleutian  Islanders,  who  practice 
polyandry,  or  of  a  people  like  the  Fuegians,  the 
native  Australians  and  the  Tasmanians,  who 
practice  polygyny,  both  polyandry  and  polygyny 
are  observances  of  this  law  after  the  outer  form; 
for,  among  all  these  peoples,  while  these  rela¬ 
tions  may  be  loose  yet  they  are  in  some  degree 
restricted,  and  while  a  civilized  man  might  re¬ 
gard  them  as  immoral  we  have  no  doubt  that  they 
consider  themselves  as  a  moral  people  and  would 
repudiate  the  accusation  that  their  marriage  forms 
are  not  regulated  by  custom,  which  to  them  is 
law. 


LIVE  A  PURE  LIFE 


85 


It  is  plain  that  Mohammedanism  and  Mor- 
monism,  which  to  us  are  palpable  departures 
from  this  law,  by  the  Mohammedans  and  Mor¬ 
mons  themselves  are  regarded  as  a  keeping  of 
this  law.  Each  of  these  peoples  pretend  to  live 
according  to  a  law  concerning  the  sacredness  of 
marriage,  and  each  of  these  peoples  would  re¬ 
pudiate  the  idea  that  they  are  adulterers  because 
they  hold  and  practice  customs  in  their  sexual  re¬ 
lations  which  a  higher  civilization  cannot  approve. 
In  the  Congo  State  in  East  Africa  we  are  af¬ 
forded  an  illustration  among  certain  tribes  to 
what  extent  this  outward  keeping  of  the  law  may 
go,  while  the  plain  spirit  of  the  law  is  violated. 
I  recollect  to  have  read  that  among  certain  tribes 
in  the  Congo  region,  the  law  against  adultery  is 
very  stringent,  being  punished,  if  I  rightly  recall, 
by  the  death  penalty;  and  yet  it  is  not  an  uncom¬ 
mon  thing  among  them  for  a  host,  as  an  act  of 
courtesy,  to  loan  his  wife  to  a  guest.  Surely  the 
people  of  the  United  States  pretend  to  and  pride 
themselves  on  the  keeping  of  this  law,  and  yet, 
when  we  consider  how  lightly  the  marriage  bond 
is  held  and  how  easily  it  may  be  dissolved  — 
when  we  realize  that  we  believe  ourselves  to  have 
complied  with  the  law  when  we  have  complied 
with  the  outer  form  of  the  law  —  the  question 
presents  itself  to  us  whether  we  are  in  any  fit  posi- 


86  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

tion  to  find  fault  with  the  other  peoples  of  the 
earth. 

Nay,  the  point  we  emphasize  is  this  —  the 
stress  is  laid  on  the  spirit  of  the  law  rather  than 
on  the  form  of  the  law,  and  the  Master  calls  our 
attention  to  the  necessity  of  keeping  of  the  law 
against  adultery  in  the  heart. 

Jesus,  in  contrast  to  the  teaching  of  all  the 
world  that  the  law  against  adultery  is  kept  or 
'  broken  externally,  affirms  that  this  law  is  kept  or 
broken  internally.  Jesus  recognizes  and  ap¬ 
proves  the  olden  law,  but  he  fulfills  this  law  as 
he  did  that  against  murder  by  giving  us  the 
higher,  truer  meaning  of  the  law. 

Says  he,  we  must  go  deeper  than  the  surface  of 
the  matter;  the  law  must  be  made  to  apply  to  the 
heart  and  the  spirit.  The  “  Do  not  do  ”  is  made 
to  read,  “  Do  not  think,”  “  Do  not  be.”  The  ob¬ 
servation  or  violation  of  this  law  lies  in  the  heart 
before  it  appears  in  the  life. 

In  his  words,  “  Every  one  that  looketh  upon 
a  woman  for  the  purpose  of  lusting  after  her  hath 
committed  adultery  with  her  already  in  his  heart,” 
we  have  set  before  us  such  an  ideal  and  such  a 
height  of  purity  as  the  world  had  not  dreamed 
of,  such  a  height  as  seems  almost  unattainable. 
Yet  who  can  deny  the  essential  truth  of  the  state¬ 
ment  of  the  Master?  Who  can  deny  that  what 


LIVE  A  PURE  LIFE  87 

is  reasonable  and  desirable  is  the  keeping  of  the 
law  of  purity  in  the  heart  and  in  the  spirit? 

In  these  striking  words  of  Christ  we  are  given 
still  another  lesson  as  to  what  the  religion  of 
Christ  really  means  —  again  we  are  afforded  an 
example  of  what  he  means  when  he  says,  “  Ex¬ 
cept  your  righteousness  shall  exceed  the  righteous¬ 
ness  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  ye  shall  not  enter 
into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.” 

What  God  demands  in  His  children  is  not 
FORM  righteousness,  not  the  outward  and  mechan¬ 
ical  conformity  of  the  steps  and  life  to  a  given 
norm,  not  sacrifices,  services,  prayers  and  profes¬ 
sions  of  the  outer  man,  but  He  requires  FACT 
righteousness,  a  setting  right  of  the  sources  of 
action,  thinking,  willing  —  keeping  pure  the  heart. 
Thus  we  are  made  to  see,  quite  contrary  to  our 
beliefs  and  practices  ofttimes,  that  religion  is  the 
realest  of  all  relations,  and  the  least  formal  of 
all  expressions  of  life.  We  are  to  worship  Him 
in  the  spirit  and  in  truth. 

Having  thus  set  before  his  hearers  such  an 
ideal  of  purity,  the  Master  now  seeks  to  encour¬ 
age  them  and  to  stimulate  them  to  effort  by  ex¬ 
hibiting  to  them  the  worth  of  the  kind  of  purity 
he  inculcates.  He  says  in  the  twenty-ninth  and 
thirtieth  verses  such  purity  is  worth  your  utmost 
sacrifice  and  it  will  demand  and  necessitate  your 


88 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


utmost  sacrifice.  This  fact  he  illustrates  to  them 
under  the  figure  of  “  the  eye  ”  and  “  the  hand.” 
In  these  words  he  teaches  that  that  body  which 
is  dear  to  every  man,  must  be  sacrificed  and  counted 
of  less  value  than  the  soul,  which  is  dearer. 
These  words  contain  figures  and  are  not  to  be 
taken  literally,  for  to  interpret  them  literally  is 
to  violate  the  very  principle  he  is  trying  to  es¬ 
tablish. 

Christ  is  not  teaching  the  inherency  of  evil  in 
the  body.  He  never  held  and  never  intimated 
this  vagary  of  the  Scholastic  philosophy.  But 
the  violation  of  the  law  to  which  he  is  referring 
is  peculiarly  a  temptation  of  the  body,  therefore 
the  sacrifice  of  the  body  is  a  most  apposite  illus¬ 
tration  of  the  principle  he  would  establish.  To 
take  this  figure  literally,  as  did,  the  Manicheans, 
the  Essenes  and  the  monks  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
is  to  do  violence  to  the  spiritual  principle  which 
the  law  teaches.  To  read  the  lesson  thus  is  to 
be  false  to  the  principle,  which  is,  Purify  the 
springs  of  action,  the  heart,  mind  and  will.  To 
cut  off  the  hand,  pluck  out  the  eye,  injure  the 
body,  is  futile,  for  it  does  not  purify  the  heart. 
To  so  interpret  his  lesson  is  to  be  guilty  of  that 
practice  which  the  Master  condemns,  the  outward 
keeping  of  the  law.  The  end  of  the  law  is  not 
the  destruction  of  the  body,  but  the  purification 


LIVE  A  PURE  LIFE 


89 


of  it. 

In  a  word,  the  principle  of  religion  here  taught 
is  that  in  living,  the  lower  ought  to  be  sacrificed 
to  that  which  is  higher.  To  paraphrase  the  text, 
it  reads,  “  If  your  eye  delights  in  anything,  if  your 
hand  would  fain  do  anything  which  is  destructive 
of  the  heart  and  the  spirit  life  within,  deny  the 
body  and  sacrifice  the  flesh  for  the  sake  of  the 
spirit.” 

The  man  is  worth  more  than  the  body  or  than 
any  part  of  it.  The  law  which  guides  a  wise  man 
is,  to  be  willing  to  sacrifice  the  lower  to  that  which 
is  higher;  this  law  can  be  learned  not  by  con¬ 
templation  and  meditation  but  by  actually  doing 
the  thing  required.  Religion  of  this  kind  is  an 
eminently  practical  religion. 

This  is  the  principle  that  guides  the  true  seeker 
after  knowledge;  the  young  man  or  woman  who 
would  make  the  attainment  of  knowledge  the  aim 
of  his  activities  must  be  willing  to  plod  along  the 
weary,  monotonous  road  which  leads  to  learning. 
He  must  be  willing  to  deny  himself  many  a  pleas¬ 
ure  which  is  offered  to  him,  to  forego  many  a  de¬ 
lightful  day  of  idleness;  he  must  be  ready  to  work 
when  his  body  would  more  willingly  sleep,  to 
tire  his  brain  and  try  his  nerve  when  the  comforts 
of  the  flesh  would  beckon  him  to  easy  repose.  In 
other  words,  to  sacrifice  his  bodily  comfort  to  his 


9o 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


mental  enrichment.  This  must  the  student  of  art 
do;  he  must  be  actuated  by  a  similar  spirit.  He 
must  count  his  art  above  his  eating,  or  drinking 
or  ease;  he  must  have  the  spirit  of  willingness  to 
lay  these  things  on  the  altar  of  self-sacrifice  for 
his  art’s  sake.  And  of  like  kind  must  be  the 
stuff  of  which  is  made  the  true  seeker  after  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  This  is  the  principle  which 

actuated  and  which  is  illustrated  in  the  story  of 

» 

the  three  Israelitish  young  men,  Shadrach, 
Meshach  and  Abednego  in  the  court  of  Nebuchad¬ 
nezzar,  king  of  Babylon.  For  the  sake  of  their 
religion,  for  the  cause  of  their  God,  they  were 
willing  to  keep  themselves  from  the  luxury,  the 
ease  and  the  temptations  of  the  Babylonian  court. 
For  the  sake  of  the  higher  good  they  were  will¬ 
ing  to  forego  the  lower  good,  and  so  the  blessing 
of  their  God  rested  upon  them. 

This  is  the  course  which  a  wise  and  true  man 
will  pursue,  as  is  intimated  in  the  words,  “  It  is 
profitable  for  thee.” 

What  the  impure  seeks,  in  yielding  to  his  pas¬ 
sionate  desires,  is  gratification,  pleasure,  happi¬ 
ness  and,  what  seems  to  him  in  his  blindness, 
good.  What  the  impure  gets  is  a  hell  of  fire. 
An  appetite  is  aroused  within  him  that  only  fat¬ 
tens  by  what  it  feeds  upon.  A  thirst  is  created 
that  only  increases  the  more  he  drinks.  Having 


LIVE  A  PURE  LIFE 


9i 


given  himself  over  to  sin  he  becomes  the  slave  of 
sin,  and  the  sense  of  liberty  he  knows  no  longer. 
How  many  a  voluptuary,  roue,  panderer  and 
slave  of  the  flesh  can  and  does  testify  to  the  truth 
of  Christ’s  teaching,  “  It  is  profitable  for  thee  ” ! 

Here  Christ’s  religion  joins  its  voice  with  com¬ 
mon  morality,  and  practical  wisdom,  and  declares 
in  no  uncertain  tone  that  the  way  to  the  good,  the 
blessed,  the  free  life,  is  along  that  road  which 
sacrifices  the  lower  to  the  higher,  the  flesh  to  the 
spirit. 

Having  thus  set  forth  in  such  striking  lines  the 
purity  and  its  worth  which  the  man  of  Christ  is 
to  seek,  the  Master  now  makes  a  practical  ap¬ 
plication  of  the  lesson  he  has  taught.  In  a  former 
section  of  this  discourse  he  spoke  of  a  principle 
necessary  for  the  promotion  and  well-being  of  the 
life  of  society;  there,  he  said,  have  a  life  free 
from  hate,  anger  and  enmity  toward  the  brother 
—  live  the  peaceable  life.  In  this  passage  he 
gives  a  principle  that  will  preserve  society’s  chief 
bulwark  and  foundation;  he  makes  a  plea  for  the 
preservation  of  the  home  and  the  family. 
Christ’s  application  of  the  teaching  concerning 
heart-purity  in  this  connection  evidences  anew  the 
importance  of  the  institution  of  the  family  and 
shows  the  gravity  of  the  chief  peril  which 
threatens  it. 


92 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


Marriage  is  a  sacred  relation;  it  is  built  on  a 
moral  conviction  at  the  very  beginning.  It  is  an 
institution  of  society,  but  more  than  this  it  is  an 
ordinance  of  God.  The  violation  of  the  mar¬ 
riage  relation  is  more  than  a  mere  breach  of  con¬ 
tract,  like  the  dissolution  of  partnership  or  the 
failure  to  perform  a  stipulated  piece  of  work;  it 
is  a  transgression  of  the  law  of  God,  and  it  is 
from  this  point  that  Christ  here  views  it. 

Says  Milton,  “  Marriage  is  the  highest  form  of 
society,”  and  Fraser  has  written,  “  Marriage  is 
the  parent  of  civil  society.”  1  Says  Thwing, 
u  The  conception  of  marriage  as  purely  secular 
has  been  at  the  basis  of  our  modern  divorce  leg¬ 
islation.”  “  The  institution  of  marriage  rests 
upon  a  triangular  base.  It  is  founded  upon  the 
interests  of  the  individual,  upon  the  interest  of 
the  State,  and  upon  divine  ordinance.  To  weaken 
this  foundation  upon  any  side  causes  the  struc¬ 
ture  to  totter.” 

Marriage  on  the  divine  side  is  for  the  con¬ 
tinuance  of  the  race,  the  protection  and  training 
of  children  and  the  development  of  the  character 
of  the  husband  and  wife.  That  marriage  is  a 
divine  institution  the  State  bears  witness  when  it 
appoints  the  clergy  as  its  official  to  perform  the 

1  See  on  this  entire  question,  “The  Family,”  by  C.  F.  and 
C.  F.  B.  Thwing,  and  “  Divorce  and  Divorce  Legislation,”  by 
Woolsey. 


LIVE  A  PURE  LIFE 


93 


sacred  ceremony. 

But  marriage  also  sustains  a  relation  to  the 
State;  it  is  the  best  basis  for  social  order;  affords 
the  best  provision  for  the  sick,  the  aged  and  the 
infirm;  and  the  principles,  useful  to  the  State,  of 
justice,  courage  and  truth  are  best  taught  and  best 
promoted  in  the  family.  Marriage  also  has  a 
distinct  relation  to  the  individual;  it  offers  the 
best  school  of  development  for  the  noblest  per¬ 
sonality  and  is  in  itself  the  truest  type  of  the  di¬ 
vine  government,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  frequency 
with  which  Jesus  quotes  the  family  relations  in 
illustrating  God’s  attitude  toward  His  children. 

Thus,  the  preservation  of  that  which  is  highest 
and  best  in  the  marriage  relation  is  the  preserva¬ 
tion  of  the  home,  the  preservation  of  the  family, 
the  preservation  of  the  State,  and  the  preserva¬ 
tion  of  the  highest  and  best  within  man  and  within 
the  race. 

But  nothing  so  militates  against  this  sacred  and 
helpful  institution  of  marriage  as  impurity.  This 
is  what  Christ  teaches  in  this  passage.  Impurity 
violates  the  marriage  bond  in  fact,  and  therefore 
it  may  be  recognized  as  broken  in  form.  It  is 
not  our  desire  to  give  statistics  on  a  subject  on 
which  statistics  are  unavailable,  and  on  which 
they  are  inefficient  in  detail.  All  that  statistics 
do  is  to  reveal  the  frequency  with  which  the  mar- 


94  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


riage  bond  is  dissolved  and  the  lightness  with 
which  so  many  hold  the  marriage  tie.  We  be¬ 
lieve,  however,  that  the  root  of  most  of  the  di¬ 
vorces  which  weaken  and  disfigure  our  society  in 
this  country,  is  impurity  and  the  violation  of  this 
heart  principle  taught  by  Christ. 

When  we  take  into  account  those  divorces 
which  are  granted  for  open  violations  of  the 
statute  against  adultery  and  those  many  more 
which  are  granted  for  “  incompatibility  ”  and  for 
other  fictitious  reasons,  but  which  in  reality  are 
granted  for  impurity,  we  have  named  the  sad 
cause  of  a  very  bad  consequence.  Indeed,  this 
subject  of  our  loose  marriage  bonds  and  loose 
marriage  laws  is  becoming  one  which  gives  pause 
to  our  complacency  and  moral  conceit. 

We  are  ashamed  and  astonished  to  learn  that 
in  New  England  more  divorces  are  granted  an¬ 
nually,  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  popula¬ 
tion,  than  in  any  other  country  on  the  globe.  The 
overthrow  of  the  Roman  family  was  the  over¬ 
throw  of  Rome,  and  while  we  do  not  immediately 
fear  any  such  sad  consequence  for  our  own  loved 
land,  yet  it  behooves  sane  and  thinking  men  to 
realize  the  importance  of  the  peril  and  the  trans¬ 
cendent  importance  of  the  remedy  which  is  sug¬ 
gested  in  the  teaching  of  him  who  spake  as  never 
man  spake.  One  thing  this  passage  brings  before 


LIVE  A  PURE  LIFE 


95 


our  minds  most  clearly:  We  are  sometimes  in¬ 
clined  to  ask,  What  is  worth  while?  The  answer 
given  to  that  question  in  the  words  of  our  Mas¬ 
ter  is,  It  is  worth  while  to  live  for  the  family 
and  for  the  home.  Home  is  the  cradle  in  which 
have  been  rocked  the  bravest,  the  best,  the  most 
worthy  of  earth’s  sons  and  daughters;  home  is 
the  schoolroom  in  which  man  can  learn  those  prin¬ 
ciples  which  best  preserve  and  those  practices 
which  best  promote  the  beautiful,  the  true  and  the 
good  in  all  life;  home  is  the  altar  at  which  re¬ 
spect,  reverence,  worship  and  religion  are  earliest 
and  truliest  inculcated;  home  is  that  quiet  spot 
from  which  we  set  forth  to  brave  the  seas  and 
storms  of  life;  no  more  inspiring,  restraining  or 
comforting  influence  can  accompany  life’s  way¬ 
farer  on  life’s  way  than  the  memory  of  a  pure 
and  pleasant  home.  Home  is  that  port  towards 
which  all  the  faithful  are  steering;  it  is  the  type 
of  heaven,  the  jewel  of  earth,  the  mountain  of 
strength,  the  quiet  valley  of  pleasure,  the  sweet¬ 
est  word  in  our  language,  the  most  potent,  benef¬ 
icent  influence  in  our  lives. 

No  worthier,  nobler  work  can  a  mortal  aspire 
to  than  to  be  the  builder  of  a  true  home  —  that 
place  “  where  each  member  loves  the  other  and 
where  all  love  God  ”;  and  no  home  can  be  truly 
founded  unless  it  rest  on  such  a  purity  of  heart 


96  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 
and  spirit  as  our  Savior  here  seeks  to  inculcate. 

“  This  be  the  verse  you  grave  for  me : 

Here  he  lies  where  he  longed  to  be ; 

Home  is  the  sailor,  home  from  the  sea, 

And  the  hunter  home  from  the  hill.” 


CHAPTER  VI 


LIVE  A  TRUTHFUL  LIFE 
Matt,  v,  33-37 

WHO  has  not  heard  a  person  express  his 
surprise  that  an  explicit  command  against 
lying  is  not  contained  in  the  two  tables  of  the 
Mosaic  law? 

As  well  might  one  exclaim  because  the  solar 
spectrum  does  not  appear  in  a  ray  of  light,  until 
it  is  broken  into  its  component  parts.  The  col¬ 
ors  are  the  light.  There  is  no  ray  of  light  with¬ 
out  the  seven  colors,  and  there  is  no  command¬ 
ment  without  the  truth. 

The  table  of  the  ten  words,  reduced  to  its  ulti¬ 
mate  analysis,  is  but  one  commandment:  Thou 
shalt  be  true;  true  to  thy  God,  true  to  thy  neigh¬ 
bor,  and  true  to  thyself. 

But  there  are  always  some  literalists  who  ask 
for  the  explicit  precept  instead  of  the  implicit 
principle;  for  these  there  are  many  commands 
against  lying  in  Scripture,  but  none  more  far- 
reaching,  none  more  authoritative,  none  more 
distinct  and  binding  than  the  words  spoken  here 
by  our  Master,  “Let  your  speech  be,  Yea,  yea; 

97 


98  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 
Nay,  nay.” 

Christ  begins  his  exposition  of  this  subject  by 
adverting  to  the  practice  of  the  ancients  of 
Israel.  He  calls  their  attention  to  the  law  re¬ 
corded  in  Leviticus,  Numbers  and  Deuteronomy, 
and  sums  up  the  import  of  that  law  in  the  words, 
“  Thou  shalt  not  forswear  thyself.” 

The  practice  of  oath  taking  among  the  an¬ 
cients  was  common  and  prevalent.  Their  oaths 
were  so  many  and  so  varied,  so  lightly  regarded 
that  the  people  had  lost  sight  of  the  original 
meaning  of  the  practice.  “  Their  number  was 
endless;  men  swore  by  heaven,  by  the  earth,  by 
the  sun,  by  the  prophets,  by  the  temple,  by 
Jerusalem,  by  the  altar,  by  the  wood  used  for  it, 
by  the  sacrifices,  by  the  temple  vessels,  by  their 
own  heads.”  1  “  The  garrulous,  exaggerating, 
crafty  Jew  needed  to  be  checked,  rather  than 
helped,  in  his  untruthfulness,  but  the  guardians 
of  the  purity  of  the  law  had  invented  endless 
oaths,  with  minute  discriminations,  and  verbal 
shades  and  catches,  which  did  not  expressly  name 
God,  or  the  temple,  or  the  altar,  and  these,  the 
people  might  use,  without  scruple,  mock  oaths, 
harmless  to  themselves  and  of  no  binding  force!  ” 
So  common  had  they  become  that  their  daily  con¬ 
versation  was  interlarded  with  these  adjurations 

1  “  The  Life  of  Christ,”  by  Geikie. 


LIVE  A  TRUTHFUL  LIFE 


99 


and  asseverations. 

It  is  to  this  foolish  custom  and  harmful  prac¬ 
tice  of  the  people  that  Jesus  makes  direct  refer¬ 
ence  when  he  calls  their  attention  to  the  futility 
and  emptiness  of  the  practice  —  and  makes  plain 
to  them  that  it  is  utter  folly  and  unwisdom. 
“  Thou  shalt  not  swear,”  says  Christ,  “  by  the 
heaven,  for  it  is  the  throne  of  God,”  etc.  Such 
oaths,  says  the  Master,  lend  neither  weight  nor 
strength  nor  certainty  to  your  utterance,  for  all 
of  these  things  are  beyond  your  authority,  influ¬ 
ence  or  control.  What  authority  have  you  in 
the  heavens  —  it  is  the  throne  of  God.  What 
rule  have  you  in  the  earth  —  or  what  do  you  de¬ 
termine  on  H  is  footstool?  So  much  are  you 
creatures  of  dependence  and  so  subject  are  you 
to  the  fixed  order  of  things,  that  you  cannot  of 
yourselves  make  one  hair  of  your  head  white  or 
black.  Therefore,  do  not  be  foolish,  and  do  not 
talk  without  meaning.  To  deck  your  talk  with 
oaths  is  to  reveal  yourself  a  simpleton. 

But  what  did  this  practice  of  oath  taking  evi¬ 
dence?  Was  it  not  the  clearest  proof  of  the 
prevalence  of  untruth  and  lying?  An  honest 
man  does  not  need  to  take  an  oath  that  what  he 
says  is  true;  and  a  liar  only  colors  a  deeper  dye 
his  lie,  by  his  oath.  The  common  practice 
among  the  Jews  showed  this  to  be  a  fact.  Truth 


100  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


was  made  to  be  untruth.  That  which  is  simple 
is  made  to  be  double;  a  distinction  is  made  where 
no  difference  exists.  An  untruth  is  an  untruth, 
whether  it  is  sworn  to  or  merely  affirmed. 

The  distinction  between  perjury  and  false¬ 
hood,  and  the  different  degrees  and  binding  qual¬ 
ities  of  oaths,  simply  declared  that  a  man  was 
permitted  to  speak  falsely,  without  guilt,  if  he 
were  not  bound  by  an  oath.  In  other  words, 
lying  is  permissible,  and  the  way  for  it  is 
smoothed  and  made  ready  by  the  technicalities 
and  connivance  of  the  law. 

The  first  evil  result  is  that  darkness  is  made 
to  be  light,  lying  is  not  lying,  if  there  be  no  oath. 
The  second  result  of  such  fine  distinctions  is  that 
lying  under  oath  is  not  lying,  except  the  oath  be 
of  a  sufficiently  sacred  or  terrifying  an  order. 
The  total  result  is  that  lying  is  fostered  and  nur¬ 
tured,  and  truth  is  strangled  by  the  meaningless 
distinction  of  the  doctors  of  the  law. 

Truth  is  slain  by  the  letter  of  the  law,  and 
lying  is  hedged  from  attack  by  the  protection  of 
the  law.  Consequently  there  is  a  moral  con¬ 
fusion  within  the  man,  and  the  entire  life  is  weak¬ 
ened  by  the  subtle  poison. 

We  are  amused  at  these  practices  and  distinc¬ 
tions  of  the  Jews,  ancient  and  modern,  and  at 
the  ingenuity  in  lying  prevalent  in  the  Oriental 


LIVE  A  TRUTHFUL  LIFE 


IOI 


nations  of  to-day.  We  contemn  and  condemn 
them,  but  the  fair  question  arises,  “  Are  we  not 
guilty  of  a  like  practice  with  them,  differing  in 
form  but  akin  in  spirit?” 

Is  there  not  a  like  condition  of  affairs  among 
ourselves,  to-day?  Take  the  world  of  modern 
business  operations,  and  while  the  great  sub¬ 
structure  is  formed  of  truth  and  honesty  else  the 
business  world  could  not  endure,  yet  in  detail 
there  are  many  departures  from  the  straight  and 
narrow  way.  The  law  of  common  honesty  and 
of  simple  truth  does  not  apply  as  largely  in  busi¬ 
ness  to-day  and  in  this  country  as  we  might  wish 
it  did;  and  when  it  is  applied,  far  too  often  it 
obtains  because,  “Honesty  is  the  best  policy”; 
applied  because  it  is  a  policy  rather  than  a  prin¬ 
ciple,  which,  from  the  standpoint  of  Christ’s  re¬ 
ligion,  means  that  it  is  not  applied  at  all. 

The  legal  maxim  of  “  caveat  emptor”  “  let  the 
buyer  beware  or  be  on  his  guard,”  is  of  far  wider 
necessity  of  application  than  ever  was  intended 
when  it  was  established  in  law,  and  with  the 
subtlety  and  refinements  of  its  application  law¬ 
yers  are  only  too  familiar. 

Lies  are  told  in  calico  and  in  wool,  in  leather 
and  in  groceries,  in  china  and  in  wood  every  day 
of  the  business  life.  Many  are  the  sellers  who 
will  give  you  less  goods  or  poorer  goods,  if  they 


io2  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


can  be  sure  to  escape  a  lawsuit,  or  if  they  are  in 
no  peril  of  infringing  the  letter  of  the  statute. 
The  phrases,  “  I  warrant  ”  or  “  I  guarantee,” 
which  formerly  had  a  definite  meaning,  with  cer¬ 
tain  sellers  to-day  mean  nothing  more  than  a  form 
of  words  to  fill  up  the  moment  of  conversation 
while  the  customer  is  deliberating  a  purchase. 

Take  that  great  field  of  enterprise,  modern 
“  fake  ”  advertisements.  Just  think  if  one  could 
take  the  statements  of  the  advertisements  for 
truth,  what  an  inestimable  boon  would  have  lighted 
upon  this  earth.  If  the  goods  set  forth  in  these 
red-letter  advertisements  did  what  they  claim  to 
do,  no  short  man  but  what  would  become  tall  — 
no  tall  man  but  what  could  be  made  short,  no  bald 
heads  but  what  could  be  covered  with  a  luxurious 
growth;  deafness,  blindness,  dumbness,  would 
have  vanished;  rheumatism,  cancer,  consumption 
and  all  the  ills  to  which  flesh  is  heir  would  have 
disappeared;  every  poor  man  would  be  made 
rich,  every  homely  woman  would  become  sud¬ 
denly  beautiful,  and  the  day  of  the  millennium 
would  be  at  hand.  But  what  are  the  facts?  No 
one  who  reads  these  personal  advertisements  ever 
dreams  that  they  are  literally  true;  no  one  who 
writes  these  personal  advertisements  ever  imagines 
that  the  reader  will  think  them  to  be  true.  The 
reader  knows  that  he  is  reading  a  perversion,  a 


LIVE  A  TRUTHFUL  LIFE 


103 


misrepresentation,  an  artistic  lie,  and  the  only  ques¬ 
tion  in  his  mind  is  not  how  much  of  this  is  false, 
but  in  the  very  last  analysis,  what  is  the  remotest 
possibility  of  a  grain  of  truth  in  the  entire  glow¬ 
ing  statement. 

One  thing  is  surely  evidenced  from  this  realm 
of  reflection,  and  that  is  that  to-day,  our  “  yea  ” 
is  by  no  means  “yea,”  nor  our  “nay,”  “nay”; 
and  that  the  sacred  principle  of  the  truth  is  far 
too  lightly  regarded.  It  is  true  that  these  are 
what  are  termed  “  fake  ”  advertisements;  it  is  like¬ 
wise  true  that  there  is  a  movement  on  foot  among 
honorable  business  men,  to  purge  the  pages  of 
advertisement  —  and  we  rejoice  to  see  this  move¬ 
ment. 

But  the  very  existence  of  such  a  movement  is 
paramount  evidence  of  its  need  and  proof  positive 
of  the  prevalence  of  lying  advertisements. 

May  the  day  speedily  come,  when  newspaper 
and  magazine  editors  shall  clearly  see  that  truth 
is  not  only  the  best  policy,  but  the  only  abiding 
principle  by  which  to  test  the  advertisements  they 
shall  print,  and  the  only  sure  foundation  on  which 
to  build  a  confidence  among  their  patrons  and 
readers. 

Even  the  practice  of  taking  an  oath  in  court 
and  the  distinction  between  perjury  and  non-per¬ 
jury  is  a  relic  of  barbarism,  and  evidences  the 


io4  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


world’s  need  of  the  very  counsel  and  command 
which  the  Master  is  here  giving. 

Now  turn,  if  you  will,  to  that  command  which 
Christ  gives,  “  Let  your  yea  be  yea  and  your  nay, 
nay,”  and  is  not  the  common,  wide-spread  atti¬ 
tude  of  the  world  toward  the  truth  tried  and  con¬ 
demned  by  this  simple  law?  These  words,  in  the 
largest  interpretation,  are  not  a  command  against 
perjury,  nor  against  profanity,  though  each  of 
these  may  be  made  to  come  under  the  law,  but 
they  are  against  untruth  in  the  inward  parts  —  in 
the  mind  and  heart  and  spirit.  The  untrue 
spirit  may  reveal  itself  in  the  thought,  may  ex¬ 
press  itself  in  the  word,  may  manifest  itself  in  the 
deed.  You  might  correct  the  word,  align  the 
thought,  make  the  deed  to  conform  to  a  given 
standard,  and  yet  have  the  spirit  still  untrue.  As 
in  the  other  instances  of  the  new  law  previously 
adverted  to,  so  here,  the  Master  does  not  give  a 
negative  command  but  a  positive  principle  — 
which  runs,  “  Live  the  true  life.” 

The  children  of  God  ought  to  be  true,  because 
they  are  God’s  children  and  God  is  true. 

That  God  is  true  is  everywhere  evidenced, 
where  there  is  any  manifestation  of  God.  With¬ 
out  being  true  He  cannot  be  God.  God’s  truth  is 
evidenced  in  the  earth  which  He  has  created  and 
which  bears  the  impress  of  His  being.  He  is  true 


LIVE  A  TRUTHFUL  LIFE 


105 


in  the  stars,  true  in  the  forces  and  processes  of  na¬ 
ture  —  the  laws  of  science  are  possible  only  be¬ 
cause  He  is  true.  If  God  were  not  true  there 
could  be  no  science,  no  knowledge  and  no  safety 
in  living.  As  this  is  the  manifestation  of  His  be¬ 
ing  in  the  world,  so  this  is  the  revelation  of  His 
character  in  the  Word.  This  is  the  Scripture 
testimony  concerning  God,  “  He  is  the  same  yes¬ 
terday,  to-day  and  forever,  with  him  is  no  vari¬ 
ableness,  neither  shadow  of  turning.”  He  is 
spoken  of  as  “  God  that  cannot  lie.”  And  Plato 
has  poetically  expressed  this  fact  in  the  words, 

Truth  is  his  body  and  light  is  his  shadow.” 
Those  who  bear  His  spiritual  image  and  are  His 
spiritual  children,  should  be  like  Him  in  this,  that 
they  are  true. 

Moreover,  the  children  of  God  should  speak 
the  truth.  Greenleaf,  in  his  work  on  Evidence, 
quoting  from  Reid’s  “  Inquiry  into  the  Human 
Mind,”  shows,  “  That  the  Author  of  Nature, 
who  intended  that  we  should  be  social  creatures, 
and  that  we  should  receive  a  great  part  of  our 
knowledge  from  others,  hath  implanted  two  prin¬ 
ciples  in  our  natures,  that  tally  with  each  other.”  2 
“  The  first  of  these  principles  is  a  propensity  to 
speak  the  truth  and  to  use  the  signs  of  language, 

2  Fid.  “A  Treatise  on  the  Law  of  Evidence,”  by  Simon 
Greenleaf,  Part  I:  Chap.  III. 


io 6  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


so  as  to  convey  our  real  sentiments.”  This  may 
be  termed  the  principle  of  veracity. 

In  other  words,  truth  is  in  accordance  with  our 
nature  and  lying  is  a  doing  violence  to  our  na¬ 
tures.  Children  by  nature  speak  the  truth,  and 
it  is  only  after  experience  and  under  temptation 
that  they  turn  to  lying.  We  have  by  nature  an 
instinct  for  the  truth  and  though  “  there  may  be 
temptations  to  falsehood,  which  would  be  too 
strong  for  the  natural  principle  of  veracity,  un¬ 
aided  by  principles  of  honor  or  virtue;  yet  where 
there  is  no  such  temptation  we  speak  truth  by 
instinct;  and  this  instinct  is  the  principle  I  have 
been  explaining.” 

Moreover,  our  author  continues,  “  there  is 
within  us,  implanted  by  the  Supreme  Being,  a  dis¬ 
position  to  confide  in  the  veracity  of  others,  and 
to  believe  what  they  tell  us  —  this  may  be  called 
the  principle  of  credulity.”  Children,  by  nature, 
believe  that  what  is  told  them  is  the  truth  —  wit¬ 
ness  with  what  readiness  they  receive  and  believe 
in  the  statements  concerning  Santa  Claus,  the  fair¬ 
ies  or  any  other  impossible  or  imaginable  beings. 

Without  this  principle  of  credulity  —  without 
this  predisposition  to  belief  in  what  is  told  to  us, 
there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  the  progress  of 
knowledge  in  the  world,  and  our  own  individual 
experience  would  be  the  limit  of  our  knowledge. 


LIVE  A  TRUTHFUL  LIFE 


107 


Credulity,  moreover,  is  a  gift  of  nature  and  not 
the  result  of  reasoning  or  experience;  it  is  the 
strongest  in  childhood  and  weakens  only  through 
experience  and  the  disappointing  contact  with  a 
deceiving  world.  The  above  statements,  while 
not  verbatim,  are  yet  substantially  taken  from  Dr. 
Reid’s  remarks  quoted  in  Greenleaf. 

This  presents  before  our  minds  the  iniquity  of 
lying.  Lying  is  one  of  the  most  subtle  and  potent 
evils  which  can  assail  human  society.  It  is  doing 
violence  to  our  natural  instincts;  it  is  out  of  the 
order  of  things.  It  is  the  greater  evil  because  of 
the  difficulty  of  its  detection.  A  thief  can  be 
traced,  a  murderer  can  be  discovered,  but  the  liar 
leaves  no  trail  in  the  air.  What  has  not  a  lie  ac¬ 
complished?  It  has  defamed  characters,  dis¬ 
rupted  households,  created  wars,  overthrown 
thrones,  perverted  religion  and  kindled  the  fires 
of  hell. 

The  lie  is  evil  again,  because  of  its  evil  associ¬ 
ations.  The  lie  seldom  travels  singly.  Says  O. 
W.  Holmes,  “  The  devil  hath  many  tools  but  a 
lie  is  a  handle  that  will  fit  them  all.”  It  is  the 
handmaid  of  every  other  kind  of  vice,  the  evil 
helper  of  every  form  of  iniquity.  The  murderer 
and  the  thief  are  primarily  liars.  The  principle 
of  lying  is  back  of  murder,  which  is  denying  the 
truth  that  another  has  the  same  right  to  live  as  I 


io8  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


have.  The  thief  is  in  principle  a  liar,  because  he 
denies  that  to  be  another’s  which  he  hath  taken. 

Lying  is  a  great  evil  because  of  its  propagating 
powers.  Lies  multiply  like  guinea  pigs  by  the 
dozens.  That  man  who  thinks  he  can  go  free 
with  one  little  lie,  does  not  understand  the  nature 
of  lying.  The  man  who  seeks  to  use  the  lie  as 
his  servant,  is  seldom  free  until  himself  becomes 
the  slave.  No  man  can  become  the  master  of  the 
lie. 

Lying  is  a  great  evil  to  humanity  because  of 
its  pervasiveness.  There  is  no  form  of  social  re¬ 
lation  into  which  it  will  not  thrust  its  sneaking 
face;  there  is  no  relation  too  sacred  for  it  to  re¬ 
spect.  There  are  the  “  white  lies  ”  of  society; 
the  “  black  lies  ”  of  commerce;  the  “  gilt  lies  ”  of 
diplomatic  relations;  the  “  glorified  lies  ”  for  the 
supposed  sake  of  religion,  illustrated  most  aptly 
by  Job’s  comforters;  the  “  party  lies  ”  as  Addison 
terms  them  for  political  purposes;  of  these  latter 
Addison  remarks,  that  some  persons  seem  to 
think  that  if  the  iniquity  of  the  lie  can  be  dis¬ 
tributed  over  the  many  it  loses  something  of  the 
personal  sin,  not  realizing  that  a  drop  of  ink  can 
discolor  and  pollute  a  considerable  body  of  pure 
water. 

The  lie  is  a  great  evil  because  it  deceives  the 
liar.  That  definition  of  the  lie,  attributed  to  the 


LIVE  A  TRUTHFUL  LIFE 


109 


Sunday-school  scholar  and  illustrating  a  too  com¬ 
mon  opinion  of  the  use  of  the  lie  — “  a  lie  is  an 
abomination  unto  the  Lord  and  a  very  present 
help  in  trouble  ” —  is  false,  absolutely  false. 
The  lie  is  a  broken  reed  upon  which  to  lean  at  any 
time;  it  is  a  saving  from  present  trouble  by  sign¬ 
ing  a  contract  for  a  future  trouble;  it  is  paying  a 
a  present  bill  by  giving  a  worthless  note  for 
a  larger  sum.  And  how  foolish  is  the  practice  of 
parents  to  lead  and  invite  their  little  children  to 
flee  to  the  false  protection  of  a  lie,  under  threat  of 
punishment,  for  telling  the  truth!  “Did  you 
break  that  vase?  If  you  did  you  shall  be  sorely 
punished  for  it.  Now  tell  me  the  truth.”  The 
child  moves  naturally  along  the  line  of  the  least 
peril,  and  “  did  not  break  the  vase,”  but  fright¬ 
fully  shatters  the  truth. 

Lying  is  an  evil  to  be  dreaded,  because  it  makes 
a  dupe  and  a  slave  of  the  liar.  A  liar  must  con¬ 
tinue  to  lie.  Few  habits  are  more  easily  ac¬ 
quired —  none  more  hardly  broken.  Frequent 
lying  leads  to  habitual  lying;  habitual  lying,  to  un¬ 
conscious  lying,  until  the  liar  arrives  at  that  point 
where  he  cannot  know  the  truth  though  he  would; 
where  he  cannot  distinguish  between  the  concepts 
of  his  lying  imagination  and  the  recollections  of 
his  memory.  Iago  the  subtle,  artistic  liar  is  a 
case  in  point.  So  frequently,  so  skillfully,  so  per- 


no  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


sistently  did  he  falsely  defame  the  character  of 
Desdemona,  that  wise  critics  have  reached  the 
conclusion  that  at  the  end  Iago  himself  believed 
those  accusations  to  be  true  which  at  the  outset  he 
knew  to  be  false.  If  Shakespeare  painted  this 
character  thus,  it  only  shows  us  that  he  understood 
the  full  peril  and  deceivableness  of  lying. 

But,  to  change  abruptly  from  the  darkness  of 
lying  to  the  white  light  of  truth,  the  closing  words 
of  this  passage  set  before  us  the  sublime  and 
simple  freedom  of  the  truth.  There  is  surely 

MORE  TRUTH  THAN  FALSEHOOD  IN  SOCIETY,  ELSE 
THE  WORLD  COULD  NOT  EXIST.  The  words  of 
Carlyle  concerning  the  religion  of  Mahomet  are 
here  apposite.  “A  false  man  found  a  religion? 
Why,  a  false  man  cannot  build  a  brick  house !  If 
he  do  not  know  and  follow  truly  the  proper¬ 
ties  of  mortar,  burnt  clay  and  what  else  he  works 
in,  it  is  no  house  that  he  makes,  but  a  rubbish 
heap  —  it  will  fall  straightway.”  The  fact  that 
there  are  great  business  houses,  large  commercial 
enterprises,  banking  systems,  and  a  world  of  busi¬ 
ness  conducted  on  credit,  says  plainer  than  any 
words  can  —  that  men  live  and  love  the  truth. 
Were  it  not  that  where  the  lie  abounds  the  truth 
much  more  abounds,  society  itself  would  cease  to 
exist. 

It  is  well  for  us  to  realize  the  peril  of  the  lie 


LIVE  A  TRUTHFUL  LIFE 


hi 


and  the  traitorous  spirit  of  that  false  friend  who 
through  misrepresentation  of  being  helpful  would 
gain  entrance  into  the  city  of  Man-Soul,  for  its 
betrayal  and  destruction.  It  is  right  for  us,  like¬ 
wise,  to  be  aware  that  truth  is  mighty  and  must 
prevail.  We  must  admire  the  honest  man  —  the 
man  of  truth,  whenever  or  wherever  we  find  him. 

In  the  Life  of  T.  H.  Huxley,  written  by  his 
son,  there  are  no  words  that  more  truly  grip  the 
heart  of  the  reader  and  kindle  his  admiration,  no 
words  which  more  tersely  and  truly  picture  in 
miniature  the  subject  of  the  sketch,  than  those 
words  taken  from  a  letter  written  by  Huxley  to 
his  son  Leonard.  “  I  know  well  that  ninety-nine 
out  of  a  hundred  of  my  fellows  would  call  me 
atheist,  infidel,  and  all  the  other  usual  hard 
names.”  .  .  .  “  But  I  cannot  help  it,  one  thing 
people  shall  not  call  me  with  justice  and  that  is  — * 
a  liar.”  Huxley  loved  the  truth,  lived  the  truth, 
worshiped  the  truth,  and  we  believe  that  it  was 
his  devotion  to  the  truth,  coupled  with  his  ab¬ 
horrence  and  utter  dread  of  believing  or  teaching 
that  which  he  did  not  know  to  be  absolutely  true, 
that  kept  his  path  on  the  plane  of  the  material, 
and  made  him  fearful  of  trusting  himself,  in 
those  regions  where  the  eye  could  not  see,  the 
ear  could  not  hear  and  the  sense  could  not  test, 
the  facts  of  knowledge.  While  we  may  not  agree 


1 12  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


with  him  in  his  position,  it  is  a  poor  soul  that 
cannot  admire  his  rich  possession  —  and  bow  with 
respect  and  honor  to  a  man  who  tried  to  be  true. 
This  simple,  strong  text,  “  Let  your  yea  be  yea 
and  your  nay,  nay,”  is  a  call  of  the  Master  to  all 
noble  minds  to  cultivate  the  truth,  such  truth  as 
is  here  indicated,  truth  of  mind  and  spirit  —  truth 
in  the  inward  parts.  For  on  the  truth  rests  a 
man’s  knowledge,  his  morality,  his  religion  —  his 
manhood,  his  usefulness  to  his  fellows  and  his  ac¬ 
ceptance  with  God. 

Blessed  are  the  true  in  heart  for  they  shall  see 
and  know  the  truth. 


CHAPTER  VII 


LIVE  A  LARGE  LIFE 
Matt,  v,  38-42 

THERE  are  no  “  little  things  ”  in  this  earth 
which  God  has  made.  I  sometimes  wonder 
whether  one,  properly  speaking,  can  refer  to  any¬ 
thing  in  this  earth  as  a  “  little  thing,”  speaking 
not  as  to  mass,  weight  and  appearance,  but  as  to 
place,  function  and  importance.  In  this  vast  ma¬ 
terial  system  there  are  the  mountains,  the  seas, 
the  oceans,  the  spheres,  but  there  are  also  the 
drops  of  water,  the  insects  and  the  microscopic 
creatures  —  and  the  student  of  the  microscope  in¬ 
forms  us  that  it  would  almost  seem  as  though 
the  Creator  had  bestowed  the  greater  thought  and 
attention  on  those  creatures  which  we  term  little 
than  on  those  which  we  term  great. 

The  Constitution  of  Nature,  scientifically  con¬ 
sidered,  is  the  constitution  of  “  little  things,”  for 
all  that  we  see,  know,  or  can  know  in  the  world  of 
matter  is  the  arrangement  and  rearrangement,  the 
laws  which  govern  and  control  molecules,  which 
you  or  I  cannot  see,  and  atoms  which  it  tires  us 
to  think  about.  If  we  would  get  an  idea  of  the 


1 14  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

minuteness  of  an  atom,  a  recent  illustration  of 
Lord  Kelvin  will  help  us  to  do  so.  Said  he, 
“  Raise  a  drop  of  water  to  the  size  of  the  earth 
and  raise  an  atom  in  the  same  proportion,  and  the 
atom  will  then  be  in  some  place  between  the  size 
of  a  marble  and  a  cricket  ball.”  Along  this  same 
line  of  thought  Professor  Brashear  of  Lehigh 
University  makes  this  comparison:  “If  you  fill 
a  tiny  vessel  of  one  centimeter  cube  with  hydro¬ 
gen  corpuscles,  or  electrons,  you  can  place  therein, 
in  round  numbers,  five  hundred  and  twenty-five 
octillions  of  them.  If  these  corpuscles  are  al¬ 
lowed  to  run  out  of  the  vessel  at  the  rate  of  one 
thousand  a  second  it  will  require  seventeen  quin- 
tillions  of  years  to  empty  it.”  And  yet  the  Cre¬ 
ator  has  thought  of  the  atom  and  the  corpuscle 
and  has  given  it  its  place,  function  and  work.  At 
all  events  there  are  no  unimportant  things  in  this 
earth;  and  the  Creator  has  regard  for  the  one  as 
for  the  other.  There  are  no  “  little  things  ”  in 
the  economy  of  God.  He  regards  kings  and 
princes,  potentates  and  great  personages;  but  like¬ 
wise  the  poor,  the  sick,  the  aged,  the  infirm  and 
the  child  are  his.  The  Father  has  consideration 
of  one  as  of  the  other. 

There  are  no  little,  unimportant  things  in  that 
life  which  Jesus  teaches  us  is  worth  living.  His 
religion  takes  into  account  the  great  principles  of 


LIVE  A  LARGE  LIFE 


115 

eternity,  but  also  the  small  practices  of  our  daily 
lives.  The  large  decisions,  the  mountains  of  truth, 
receive  his  notice,  but  also  the  daily,  humble,  ap¬ 
parently  insignificant  deed,  word  and  thought  have 
our  attention  called  to  them. 

The  spirit,  to  which  our  earnest  thought  is  di¬ 
rected  in  his  present  words,  is  great,  grand, 
kingly,  Godlike  —  Live  a  large  life,  a  life  of 
love,  forbearance,  forgiveness  and  patience.  The 
instances  in  which  we  are  directed  to  do  this  are 
little,  petty,  insignificant,  matters  of  expedience, 
prudence  and  mere  good  manners.  Because  this 
is  the  method  of  his  teaching,  is  it  not  all  the  more 
true  to  the  facts  and  experiences  of  life?  Live  a 
large  life  is  the  grand  theme,  among  the  common 
trivialities  of  the  common  day  is  the  illustration 
of  the  theme. 

At  the  outset  the  Master  calls  our  attention  to 
that  law  which  had  been  received  from  Moses, 
that  law  which  had  regulated  the  custom,  practice 
and  habit  of  the  people  for  centuries,  that  law 
which  was  supposed  to  have  the  warrant  of  au¬ 
thority,  and  the  endorsement  of  God  Himself.  It 
is  recorded  in  Exodus  XXI,  23-25,  “  And  if  mis¬ 
chief  follow,  then  thou  shalt  give  life  for  life,  eye 
for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  hand  for  hand,  foot  for 
foot,  burning  for  burning,  wound  for  wound, 
stripe  for  stripe.”  This  law  is  known  through  all 


ii  6  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


times  and  in  all  jurisprudence  as  the  “  lex 
talionis,”  the  law  of  retaliation,  recompense 
and  revenge.  And  this  is  a  law  which  is  exceed¬ 
ingly  congenial  to  human  nature,  because  it  ac¬ 
cords  so  perfectly  with  the  impulses  of  nature. 
It  is  a  law  which  springs  unbidden  to  regulate  the 
conduct  of  man.  We  find  the  root  of  it  deeper 
than  the  nature  of  man,  even  in  the  nature  of  the 
brute.  Snarl  at  a  dog,  make  a  threatening  ges¬ 
ture  at  a  dog,  and  the  result  is  that  he  will  show 
you  his  teeth,  and  stand  ready  to  act  upon  the 
“  lex  talionis.”  You  are,  let  us  say,  sitting  in 
your  study,  reading  or  writing,  suddenly  from  the 
nursery  below  issue  sounds  of  conflict,  blows  are 
heard  to  fall,  cries  agitate  the  slumbering  air,  and 
the  sound  of  weeping  strikes  upon  your  ear. 
With  the  instinct  of  natural  judgeship  you  leave 
your  quiet  work  and  descend  to  “  hear  the  cause.” 
Is  it  not  usually  stated  thus:  “  He  did  it  to  me 
and  I  did  it  to  him  ”?  Remarks  by  the  court  of 
a  moral  nature.  u  It  don’t  make  any  difference; 
he  had  no  right  to  hit  me,  and  I  only  did  to  him 
just  what  he  did  to  me.”  The  case  is  concluded 
according  to  the  wisdom  or  the  unwisdom  of  the 
court,  but  the  principle  of  “  lex  talionis  ”  has  been 
illustrated  again  for  the  millioneth  time  in  the 
world  of  childhood.  And  as  this  is  a  primitive 
law,  manifesting  itself  in  the  childhood  of  every 


LIVE  A  LARGE  LIFE 


1 17 

man,  so  has  it  ever  been  manifested  in  the  child¬ 
hood  of  the  race. 

I  presume  that  in  almost  every  nation  illustra¬ 
tions  of  the  “  lex  talionis  ”  can  be  found,  but  I  be¬ 
lieve  that  nowhere  can  we  find  a  better,  nor  an 
earlier  illustration  of  this  law,  than  in  that  re¬ 
markable  Code  of  Khammurabbi  which  has  in  re¬ 
cent  years  come  to  light.  This  is  the  oldest  legal 
code  in  existence;  it  dates  from  2300  B.  c.,  a 
thousand  years  before  Moses,  and  illustrates  to 
us  the  character  of  a  civilization  contemporary 
with  that  of  Abraham’s  day.  In  this  code  the 
“  lex  talionis  ”  appears  prominently.  We  give 
but  a  few  of  the  more  plain  instances  of  it.  The 
ideal  of  punishment  is  one  that  shall  balance  the 
crime,  and  be  like  the  crime  in  kind  and  degree. 
“  If  one  destroys  the  eye  of  a  free-born  man,  his 
eye  shall  one  destroy.”  1  “  If  any  one  breaks  the 

limb  of  a  free-born  man,  his  limb  one  shall 
break.”  “  If  a  builder  has  built  a  house  for 
some  one  and  has  not  made  his  work  firm,  and  if 
the  house  he  built  has  fallen  and  has  killed  the 
owner  of  the  house,  that  builder  shall  be  put  to 
death.”  If  the  house  falls  and  kills  the  owner’s 
son  —  the  son  of  the  builder  is  to  be  killed.  If  a 
slave  is  killed  by  the  falling  house,  a  slave  must 

1  “  The  Code  of  Khammurabbi  ” —  Historians’  History  of  the 
World,  Vol.  I,  p.  49S. 


1 1 8  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


be  given  to  the  owner  of  the  house.  If  a  doctor 
treats  a  slave,  cutting  him  with  a  bronze  lancet 
and  the  slave  dies,  the  doctor  must  give  the  owner 
another  slave.  Thus  runs  the  law  of  like  for 
like,  in  the  childhood  of  the  race. 

This  “  lex  talionis  ”  was  also  a  theory  among 
the  Greeks,  not  practiced  perhaps  in  their  laws, 
but  appearing  in  their  view  of  the  divine  govern¬ 
ment.  They  believed  that  in  the  order  of  Prov¬ 
idence  the  one  who  committed  a  sin  against  his 
brother  should  suffer  as  penalty  that  same  wrong 
done  by  another  to  him.  The  one  who  stole 
should  suffer  through  being  stolen  from.  The 
man  who  lied  should  be  deceived  by  lies.  Inhu¬ 
manity  would  beget  inhumanity.  This  latter  is 
illustrated  by  the  old  story  of  the  father  who, 
when  his  son  was  maltreating  him  by  dragging 
him  by  the  hair  of  the  head  through  the  streets  of 
the  city,  cried  out,  when  they  had  reached  the 
forum,  “  Drag  me  no  further,  for  I  only  dragged 
my  father  to  the  forum.” 

We  have  already  seen  that  this  “  lex  talionis  ” 
is  one  of  the  written  laws  of  the  Mosaic  legisla¬ 
tion.  Now  while  this  law  was  to  be  enforced  by 
the  legally  constituted  authorities,  and  in  this  re¬ 
spect  was  better  than  the  application  of  the  law 
by  the  individual  himself,  because  less  liable  to 
abuse,  yet  in  this  law  the  RIGHT  of  retaliation  is 


LIVE  A  LARGE  LIFE 


119 

recognized  and  the  spirit  of  retaliation  is  incul¬ 
cated.  Therefore  the  literal  man  concludes,  I 
have  the  law  back  of  my  desire,  and  I  have  a 
right  to  MY  rights.  It  is  against  this  principle, 
against  this  spirit,  against  this  maxim,  so  com¬ 
monly  heard  —  I  have  a  right  to  my  rights  — 
that  Jesus  opposes  a  better  principle,  and  illus¬ 
trates  it  by  several  instances  and  in  four  fields  of 
application.  The  principle  which  he  sets  at  the 
head  of  his  discussion  is  do  not  oppose  evil 

WITH  EVIL. 

The  first  illustration  which  he  offers  where  this 
principle  will  apply  is  in  our  contact  with  the  pas¬ 
sionate  man.  Now  it  is  very  clear  that  a  man  has 
the  right  to  life  and  his  bodily  safety  —  the  pas¬ 
sionate  man  is  the  man  who  would  rob  you  of  this 
right,  and  would  injure  you  in  your  body  and  per¬ 
son.  How  irritating,  exasperating,  provoking  is 
such  a  man.  This  human  pepper-box,  this  ani¬ 
mate  volcano,  this  troublesome  sore  on  the  body 
of  society!  Who  can  avoid  him?  Who  is  not 
fated  to  meet  him,  sometime,  somewhere?  Now 
in  the  home,  again  in  the  street,  to-day  in  our 
business  transactions,  to-morrow  in  the  sanctity  of 
the  church.  And  wherever  you  meet  him  he  is 
ever  the  same;  the  man  of  unmodified  conceit,  of 
overbearing  manner,  of  limitless  selfishness,  of 
irritating  self-importance.  Always  he  must  be 


i2o  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


approached  with  slippered  feet  and  with  gentle 
words  lest  he  burst  out  into  a  passion  and  take  up 
arms  against  his  nearest  neighbor,  and  smite  him 
on  the  cheek.  The  natural  effect  of  this  man’s  at¬ 
titude,  of  his  temper  and  of  his  act,  is  to  provoke 
the  military  and  warlike  spirit  that  lurks  within 
every  man.  We  have  the  desire  to  meet  violence 
with  violence,  and  to  treat  this  form  of  human  dis¬ 
temper  homeopathically. 

This  is  the  spirit,  this  the  temptation,  the 
Master  would  restrain.  Says  he,  “  Meet  not  such 
an  one  with  an  evil  spirit,  but  oppose  his  evil,  and 
ungoverned  soul,  with  a  restrained  and  governed 
spirit.” 

Let  a  man, examine  this  rule  and  he  must  see 
that  the  Master  is  not  counseling  cowardice  and  a 
craven  spirit.  The  man  who  has  the  spirit  of 
Christ  is  the  man  of  real  courage;  he  is  one  who 
can  endure,  bear,  take  punishment;  he  is  the  man 
of  self-mastery  —  far  better,  far  braver,  far 
nobler  than  the  other.  He  is  the  man  who  illus¬ 
trates  the  wisest  of  the  wise  man’s  proverbs, 
“  He  that  is  slow  to  anger  is  better  than  the 
mighty;  and  he  that  ruleth  his  spirit  than  he  that 
taketh  a  city.”  2  Such  an  one  is  the  real  com¬ 
mander  of  the  situation,  and  must  have  the  heart, 
courage  and  self-control  of  the  brave  man  who 

2  Prov.  xvi,  32. 


LIVE  A  LARGE  LIFE 


I  2 1 


would  tame  a  wild  beast.  This  is  but  a  practical 
application  of  the  irrefutable  principle  that,  “  A 
soft  answer  turneth  away  wrath;  but  grievous 
words  stir  up  anger.”  As  a  principle  this  is  true; 
it  calls  for  wisdom  in  its  application,  like  every 
other  principle,  and  the  wise  man  will  realize  that 
sometimes  the  way  to  peace  is  through  war. 

A  second  right  plainly  recognized  as  belonging 
to  man  is  his  right  to  his  own  property.  There 
be  those  who  would  deny  this  right,  sometimes 
forcibly,  but  more  often  under  color  of  law.  It 
is  the  price  which  one  pays  for  living  in  grega¬ 
rious  relations,  that  one  must  meet  this  kind  of 
man  —  the  litigious  man,  the  man  who  would  de¬ 
prive  you  of  your  estate,  or  who  seems  to  find 
delight  in  worrying  and  putting  you  to  endless  an¬ 
noyance  in  the  keeping  of  that  which  is  yours. 
This  kind  of  a  man  is  avaricious,  inconsiderate, 
cruel,  troublesome.  It  is  painful  to  live  near  him. 
It  is  a  supreme  test  of  character  to  encounter  him. 
He  is  the  kind  of  human  weed,  which  spreads 
broadcast  the  seeds  of  discontent,  strife,  bitter¬ 
ness,  bad-feeling  and  hatred.  Do  you  respect 
him?  Do  others  respect  him?  Would  you  be 
like  him? 

You  see  the  evil  manifested  in  him  —  there¬ 
fore  avoid  becoming  like  him.  How?  Jesus 
tells  us  in  this  fortieth  verse.  Remember  that 


i22  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


personality  is  worth  more  than  things.  Remem¬ 
ber  that  power  is  worth  more  than  property,  and 
good  is  worth  more  than  “  goods.”  The  litigious 
man  may  get  the  “  goods,”  but  Jesus  directs  how 
you  may  get  “  the  good.”  What  are  you  seek¬ 
ing?  What  is  your  aim  in  life?  Is  it  character, 
is  it  to  be,  rather  than  to  possess?  Then  here  is 
your  opportunity  for  real  enrichment.  The 
Master’s  counsel  in  this  fortieth  verse  is  not  only 
sound  religion  but  it  is  sound  prudence  and  com¬ 
mon  sense,  as  experience  hath  so  often  verified, 
and  as  we  shall  briefly  exhibit  later. 

A  third  right  of  man,  approved  in  reason  and 
recognized  in  our  national  constitution,  is  the 
right  to  liberty.  The  right  to  be  the  arbiter  of 
his  own  destiny,  the  right  to  be  the  determiner  of 
his  own  goal.  The  right  to  go  if  he  would  go, 
and  to  refrain  from  going  if  he  would  not  go. 
But  one  does  not  travel  far  in  this  world  before 
he  meets  with  the  overbearing  man.  The  man 
who  has  such  a  realization  of  his  own  rights,  such 
a  confidence  in  his  own  judgment  and  opinions, 
that  he  fails  to  recognize  the  right,  judgment  and 
opinion  of  any  other  mortal.  This  kind  of  a  hu¬ 
man  insect  you  meet  most  frequently  in  public  and 
crowded  places.  He  infests  hotels,  ferry-boats, 
cars  and  any  place  where  the  people  gather  to¬ 
gether,  and  wherever  you  find  him  you  find  him 


LIVE  A  LARGE  LIFE 


123 


asserting  himself,  elbowing  his  way  through  the 
crowd  and  seeking  to  compel  the  many  to  go  the 
way  of  the  one.  Now  it  is  perfectly  possible  and 
perfectly  competent  for  you  to  accept  his  chal¬ 
lenge,  to  make  a  row,  to  insist  on  your  rights,  to 
urge  your  vote,  to  subscribe  your  veto  to  the  un¬ 
reasonable  will  of  such  a  man.  It  is  competent, 
but,  says  the  Master,  it  is  not  worth  while  so  to 
do.  Yield  the  technicality  of  your  right,  leave 
the  worthless  victory  to  the  little  man  covered 
with  the  tin  medals,  the  rewards  of  his  brag¬ 
gadocio,  and  go  your  calm  and  peaceful  way, 
conscious  that  you  have  gained  a  great  battle  over 
self,  and  aware  of  the  approval  of  every  great 
and  good  spirit  in  the  universe.  This  is  the  kind 
of  man  of  whom  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  writes, 
in  his  “Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table”: 
“  The  qualities  which  tend  to  make  me  hate  the 
man  himself  are  such  as  I  am  so  much  disposed  to 
pity,  that,  except  under  immediate  aggravation, 
I  feel  kindly  enough  to  the  worst  of  them.  It  is 
such  a  sad  thing  to  be  born  a  sneaking  fellow,  so 
much  worse  than  to  inherit  a  hump-back  or  a 
couple  of  club-feet,  that  I  sometimes  feel  as  if  we 
ought  to  love  the  crippled  souls,  if  I  may  use  this 
expression,  with  a  certain  tenderness  which  we 
need  not  waste  on  noble  natures.  One  who  is 
born  with  such  a  congenital  incapacity  that  nothing 


124  THE  life  worth  living 


can  make  a  gentleman  of  him  is  entitled,  not  to 
our  wrath,  but  to  our  profoundest  sympathy.” 

The  last  class  to  which  the  Master  refers,  as 
persons  who  interfere  with  our  rights  and  privi¬ 
leges,  are  those  who  tend  to  injure  you  in  your 
kindness  and  charity.  I  like  the  way  in  which 
this  is  put  —  it  is  a  man’s  right  to  give,  it  is  a  rich 
privilege  to  him  to  be  charitable,  nothing  will 
make  him  a  larger  or  happier  man  than  the  exer¬ 
cise  of  these  graces.  But  how  many  become  dis¬ 
couraged  and  disheartened  in  their  charity  and 
giving,  by  being  continually  accosted  by  the  asker 
and  continually  defrauded  by  the  borrower. 
There  are  leeches  and  lamprey  eels  in  the  animal 
world,  there  are  parasites  in  the  vegetable  world, 
and  there  are  those  in  the  world  of  men  and 
women  who  are  professional  frauds  and  blood¬ 
suckers,  who  never  laboring  yet  desire  to  eat,  who 
never  giving  yet  desire  to  get,  who  live  by  their 
ignoble  and  graceless  cheek,  and  who  laugh  at  you 
and  me  for  being  easy  marks  for  their  false  and 
pathetic  appeals.  Now,  many  a  liberal  soul  and 
many  a  charitably  minded  man  has  allowed  this 
class  of  person  to  rob  him  of  that  which  is  worth 
more  than  his  golden  trash,  even  of  his  generous 
heart.  Many  a  man  has  said,  “  I  have  been 
‘  taken  in  ’  so  often,  deceived  so  frequently,  that  I 
am  resolved  never  to  give  to  any  man  or  any 


LIVE  A  LARGE  LIFE 


12  5 


cause  again.”  To  such  a  hasty  and  unwise  re¬ 
solve  the  Master  here  says,  “Don’t!”  Keep 
your  spirit  of  liberality;  do  not  allow  it  to  be  de¬ 
stroyed;  exercise  that  same  breadth  of  judgment 
in  your  giving,  that  you  do  in  your  business,  you 
cannot  always  make  a  profit  on  every  transaction, 
bear  with  gracious  fortitude  these  provoking 
losses,  and  never  permit  these  grasping  and  thiev¬ 
ing  parasites  of  society  to  steal  from  you  the  right 
to  live  the  large,  blessed  and  happy  life  of  liber¬ 
ality. 

Now  if  we  have  carefully  observed,  while  the 
Master  has  been  talking,  we  have  seen  that  the 
purpose  of  this  principle,  of  not  resisting  evil  with 
evil  but  of  meeting  the  evil  with  good,  is  for  the 
sake  of  the  man  practicing  it.  This  is  where  the 
first  returns  are  to  be  seen,  in  the  self.  It  is  not 
for  the  sake  of  the  violent,  nor  the  litigious,  nor 
the  overbearing  man,  that  you  are  to  observe  this 
law,  but  to  keep  you  from  being  like  them.  The 
Master  is  teaching  his  disciples,  giving  counsel  to 
his  children.  Such  a  disposition,  such  a  life,  vic¬ 
torious  in  “  little  things,”  will  make  you  a  com¬ 
mander,  a  master,  a  hero,  a  truly  great  man. 
The  man  who  can  look  beyond  the  immediate 
moment,  past  the  present  annoyance,  over  the 
head  of  the  little  fellow  who  stands  insisting  on 
his  rights,  is  a  truly  great  man,  living  a  large  life. 


126  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


But  a  second  good  result  follows:  nothing  will 
more  promote  the  kingdom  of  heaven  than  such 
living  as  is  here  indicated.  What  becomes  of 
quarrels  with  only  one  party  to  fight?  What  of 
law-suits  over  coats,  if  the  other  party  says, 
“  Here,  take  my  cloak  also  ”?  Given  this  spirit 
and  the  case  is  settled  out  of  court.  What  hap¬ 
pens  to  the  joy  of  victory  of  the  overbearing  man 
when  the  other  says,  “  Why  certainly,  two  miles  if 
you  choose  ”  ?  Why,  all  the  joy  and  spice  is  gone 
for  the  mean  spirit  of  the  insistent  man,  and  he 
is  far  more  likely  to  yield  a  foot  or  two  more  of 
the  sidewalk  to  the  one  whom  he  thinks  is  crowd¬ 
ing  him. 

Observe :  so  great  and  pervasive  is  the  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ  that  it  leavens  the  trivialities  of 
daily  life.  How  greatly  would  the  home  be  im¬ 
proved  if  there  were  less  insistence  on  “  my 
rights  ”  and  “  thy  rights.”  How  would  busi¬ 
ness  be  made  more  pleasant  and  more  profit¬ 
able,  if  there  were  no  litigious  employers 
and  no  overbearing  clerks !  How  the  church 
would  be  beautified  and  glorified,  if  each  in 
honor  preferred  the  other.  Observe:  the  man 
who  has  a  spirit  of  this  kind  must  find  roses 
along  life’s  path,  the  fruit  of  his  gentle  sow¬ 
ing.  “  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he 
also  reap.”  Fire  feeds  fire;  hate  breeds  hate; 


LIVE  A  LARGE  LIFE 


127 


kindness  begets  kindness;  and  love  reflects  love. 
In  the  Rose  Garden  (Gulistan)  by  Sa’di  we  read 
this  incident,  “  I  was  seated  in  a  vessel,  along 
with  some  persons  of  distinction,  when  a  boat  sunk 
astern  of  us  and  two  brothers  were  drawn  into 
the  whirlpool.  One  of  our  gentlemen  called  to 
the  pilot,  saying/  Save  those  two  drowning  men 
and  I  will  give  you  a  hundred  dinars!  ’  The 
pilot  went  and  rescued  one  of  them,  but  the  other 
perished.  I  observed,  ‘  That  man’s  time  was 
come,  therefore  you  were  tardy  in  assisting  him 
and  alert  in  saving  this  other.’  The  pilot  smiled 
and  replied,  ‘  What  you  say  is  the  essence  of  in¬ 
evitable  necessity;  yet  was  my  zeal  more  hearty 
in  rescuing  this  one  because  on  an  occasion  when 
I  was  tired  in  the  desert  he  set  me  on  a  camel; 
whereas,  when  a  boy,  I  had  received  a  horse¬ 
whipping  from  that  other.’  God  Almighty  was 
all  justice  and  equity:  whoever  labored  unto  good 
experienced  good  in  himself;  and  he  who  toiled 
unto  evil  experienced  evil.” 

It  is  a  fact  hard  for  us  to  believe,  that  not  he 
who  has  had  injustice  done  him  but  he  who  does 
injustice  is  the  most  injured. 

Yet  some  one  may  say,  “  These  principles  are 
impossible  and  impracticable.”  How  do  you 
know?  There  has  never  been  but  One  who  has 
perfectly  tried  this  way;  he  it  is  who  counsels  this 


128  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


way  for  us.  Says  Lessing,  “  The  Christian  re¬ 
ligion  has  been  tried  for  eighteen  centuries,  and 
the  religion  of  Christ  remains  to  be  tried.”  This 
is  the  religion  of  Christ.  Try  it! 


CHAPTER  VIII 


LIVE  THE  PERFECT  LIFE 
Matt,  v,  43-48 

IN  the  past  four  divisions  of  this  great  dis¬ 
course  Jesus  has  been  treating  of  a  morality 
worth  practicing.  In  this  exhibition  he  has  made 
plain  to  his  hearers  that  the  religion  which  he 
taught  was  truly  ethical. 

So  emphatically  is  morality  insisted  upon  that, 
did  we  separate  this  part  of  the  discourse  from 
its  context,  one  might  conclude  that  religion  is 
only  morality.  Yet  we  find  that  the  morality 
which  he  prescribed  is  not  a  mechanical  conform¬ 
ity  to  a  fixed  norm  but  the  natural  fruit  of  a  right 
spirit  —  the  emphasis  being  laid  on  the  life  which 
is  within,  rather  than  the  life  which  is  without, 
and  thus  marking  for  us  the  true  relation  of  re¬ 
ligion  to  morality. 

The  morality  which  he  taught,  while  based  on 
the  profoundest  principles,  yet  extends  to  the  ver¬ 
iest  commonplaces  of  life.  In  these  four  divi¬ 
sions  referred  to  Jesus  had  made  plain  that  we 
ought  to  live  a  peaceable  life  —  free  from  heart- 
hate;  we  ought  to  live  a  pure  life  —  free  from 

129 


I30  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

heart-lust;  we  ought  to  live  a  true  life  —  in  word 
and  act  and  thought;  and  we  ought  to  live  a  large 
life  —  above  the  insistent  application  of  “  my 
rights.” 

Thus  inductively  has  the  Master  led  us  up  to 
the  heart  of  morality  and  the  spirit  of  right  living, 
which  is  love. 

The  stage  in  the  discourse  we  have  now  reached 
is,  therefore,  the  summing  up  of  that  which  has 
gone  before  and  the  introduction  to  that  right¬ 
eousness  worth  attaining  of  which  he  is  about  to 
speak. 

In  other  words,  love  is  the  central  point  in  his 
discourse,  as  it  should  be  the  central  point  in  life; 
it  is  pivotal  in  one  as  in  the  other;  it  is  that 
vital,  focal  point  where  morality  meets  and  merges 
into  religion.  Love  is  that  great  law  of  the 
Scriptures,  for  the  determination  of  a  man’s  right 
relation  to  his  fellows  and  a  man’s  right  relation 
to  his  God.  Given  such  a  love  in  the  life  as  is 
here  pictured,  and  the  man  stands  in  the  proper 
relation  to  God  and  to  his  brethren.  Love,  there¬ 
fore,  is  the  spring  of  all  true  morality  and  love  is 
the  only  foundation  of  perfect  righteousness.  In 
short,  it  is  the  presence,  power  and  guidance  of 
love  that  makes  the  perfect  man. 

The  perfect  life,  which  is  now  to  be  the  theme 
of  the  Master’s  teaching,  is  presented  to  his 


LIVE  THE  PERFECT  LIFE  13 1 


hearers  in  striking  contrast  to  the  imperfect  life, 
which  is  the  life  of  the  world.  We  find  that 
imperfect  life  evidenced  and  authorized  in  the  im¬ 
perfect  law  of  Moses.  In  Deuteronomy  the 
twenty-third  chapter  and  the  sixth  and  seventh 
verses  we  read,  “  Thou  shalt  not  seek  their  (the 
Moabite’s  and  Ammonite’s)  peace  nor  their  good, 
all  thy  days  forever.”  “  Thou  shalt  not  abhor 
an  Edomite,  for  he  is  thy  brother.” 

In  other  words,  “  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
and  hate  thine  enemy.”  This  was  the  law  of  the 
Jews,  and  this  law  exhibits  the  practice  of  the 
Jews  in  their  relations  to  the  various  peoples  with 
whom  they  came  into  contact.  In  this  particular 
respect  the  Jews  were  not  superior  to  the  other 
nations  of  antiquity  —  for  that  which  was  prac¬ 
ticed  by  the  Jews  in  their  relations  was  likewise 
practiced  by  the  other  nations  in  their  relations 
to  the  Jews. 

This  loyalty  to  friends  and  hostility  to  enemies 
characterizes,  in  a  general  way,  the  law  of  love 
as  it  was  written  before  the  coming  of  Christ. 

Among  the  ancients  the  bonds  of  friendship 
were  very  strong,  and  the  principle  of  loyalty  to 
tribe,  clan  or  nation  was  to  a  degree  binding. 
That  man  was  an  outcast  and  an  unworthy  citi¬ 
zen,  who  played  the  traitor  to  a  brother,  a  friend 
or  to  one  to  whom  he  had  given  the  tokens  of 


1 3 2  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

friendship,  illustrated  in  the  ancient  practice  of 
“  eating  salt  ”  with  a  man.  But  that  man  was 
likewise  a  traitor  to  family,  tribe  or  nation,  who 
showed  kindness,  or  did  good,  to  another,  the  ac¬ 
knowledged  enemy  of  tribe  or  family.  The  cus¬ 
tom  of  holding  the  family  responsible  for  the 
crime  of  the  individual,  of  demanding  reparation 
from  the  family  for  the  wrong  doing  of  one  of  its 
members;  and  likewise  the  duty  of  taking 
vengeance  and  of  seeking  reparation  for  a  wrong 
done  to  any  member  of  the  tribe  or  family  illus¬ 
trates  both  the  solidarity  of  the  family  and  tribal 
life,  and  the  prevalence  of  the  law  that  “  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  and  hate  thine  enemy.” 

This  law,  so  potent  and  so  prevalent  in  the 
early  days,  still  survives  among  all  nations  at  the 
present  day  in  the  form  of  the  commonly  known 
legal  fiction,  that  when  a  nation  is  at  war  with  an¬ 
other  nation,  every  member  of  the  nation  is  an 
enemy  of  that  other  nation  and  vice  versa. 

The  word  “  barbarian,”  with  its  familiar  mean¬ 
ing  of  uncivilized  or  half  savage,  is  a  positive 
though  small  relic  of  the  narrow  spirit  of  national¬ 
ism,  and  the  limited  spirit  of  charity  of  an  earlier 
day.  Among  the  Greeks  “  a  barbarian  ”  meant 
one  who  was  not  a  Greek,  among  the  Romans  it 
meant  one  who  was  not  a  Roman,  among  the  Ital¬ 
ians  it  referred  to  all  who  were  not  Italians.  As 


LIVE  THE  PERFECT  LIFE  133 


one  has  said,  “  It  is  remarkable  that  we  always 
call  a  rival  civilization  savage;  the  Chinese  call  us 
barbarians,  and  we  call  them  barbarians.” 
“  The  Middle  Ages  were  a  rival  civilization, 
based  upon  moral  science,  to  ours  based  upon 
physical  science.  Most  modern  historians  have 
abused  this  great  civilization  for  being  barbar¬ 
ous.”  1 

This  is  not  literally  true  at  the  present  day,  and 
the  reason  for  the  change  we  shall  consider  later, 
but  it  was  true  with  the  utmost  literalism  in  a 
former  day. 

In  one  word,  while  the  old  morality  taught  that 
it  was  a  virtue  to  be  a  good  lover,  it  taught  with 
equal  insistence  and  authority,  that  it  was  an  equal 
virtue  to  be  a  “  good  hater.” 

This  law  of  loving  one’s  friends  and  hating  the 
enemy  likewise  represented  the  spirit  of  the  best 
religion  of  a  former  day.  David  was  a  char¬ 
acter,  tender,  gentle,  sympathetic  and  spiritual, 
loyal  and  true  to  his  friends  —  but  hating  his 
enemies  with  a  like  zeal,  devotion  and  singleness 
of  purpose.  Some  of  the  imprecatory  Psalms  il¬ 
lustrate  to  a  nicety,  with  what  an  ideal  compli¬ 
ance  David  observed  the  law  of  Moses,  “  Thou 
shalt  hate  thine  enemy.”  This  spirit  of  hatred  to 

1  “  Bookman’s  Biography  of  Thomas  Carlyle,”  by  G.  K.  Ches¬ 
terton,  J.  E.  Hodder  Williams. 


i34  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

the  enemy  has  been  strongly  characteristic  of  all 
religious  differences  in  all  times  of  history.  The 
Spanish  Inquisition  was  simply  a  systematized 
propaganda  for  punishing  and  exterminating  those 
who  were  regarded  as  the  enemies  of  the  church, 
and  therefore  the  enemies  of  mankind.  In  lib¬ 
eral  and  enlightened  England  during  the  reigns 
of  James  and  Charles,  when  religious  loyalty  was 
so  devoted  and  religious  hostility  so  bitter,  the  ad¬ 
herent  of  either  religious  party,  which  at  that  time 
frequently  coincided  with  the  political  party,  was 
the  bitter  enemy  of  the  other  party,  so  that  it 
came  to  pass  that  house  was  divided  against 
house,  husband  against  wife,  children  against  their 
parents. 

Now  the  way  of  life  prescribed  and  produced 
by  this  law  that  “  hath  been  written  of  old,”  can 
surely  be  called  an  imperfect  way,  because  it  re¬ 
sulted  in  such  imperfect  living.  We  believe  that 
we  have  reached  that  point  in  civilization  when  we 
can  surely  affirm  that  a  state  of  war  is  a  state  of 
society  to  be  deprecated  and  deplored.  But  the 
observance  of  this  old  law  resulted  in  a  continual 
state  of  war  of  larger  or  lesser  proportions.  In 
England  the  Hundred  Years’  War,  and  the  Thirty 
Years’  War  were  the  fruit  of  this  law,  and  there 
has  never  been  a  religious  war  which  was  not  the 
product  of  “  loving  our  friends  and  hating  our 


LIVE  THE  PERFECT  LIFE  135 

enemies.”  This  is  the  life,  and  this  is  the  law 
which  fosters  such  a  life,  that  Jesus  categorically 
rebukes,  condemns  and  repeals.  “  But  I  say  unto 
you,”  are  the  words  with  which  he  introduces  the 
new  law  of  perfection.  And  the  law  which  the 
Master  enacts  and  which  ever  is  associated  with 
his  divine  life  and  his  divine  works,  is  the  great 
law  of  love. 

The  law  of  love  here  referred  to  is  a  law  to 
the  reason  and  the  will  of  a  free  moral  agent. 
The  love  spoken  of  is  not  a  matter  of  sentiment 
—  it  does  not  refer  to  instinctive  affection,  to  im¬ 
pulsive  and  natural  devotion,  as  the  love  of  the 
parent  for  the  child.  Such  a  law,  commanding 
a  son  to  love  his  mother,  in  the  sense  of  having  a 
natural  affection  and  right  sentiment  for  her, 
would  be  a  superfluity  and  an  absurdity.  Such  a 
love  is  already  furnished  by  nature  and  so  there  is 
no  need  for  such  a  command.  This  would  be  a 
superfluous  law,  as  much  as  the  command,  “  Thou 
shalt  eat  or  thou  shalt  breathe.”  Again,  instinc¬ 
tive  affection  and  natural  devotion  is  not  the  object 
of  this  law  because  to  command  such  a  thing  would 
be  an  impossibility.  To  command  the  operation  of 
instinctive,  impulsive,  natural  functions  and  senti¬ 
ments  is  beyond  the  pale  of  command,  because  it 
is  beyond  the  pale  of  volition.  Jesus  is  not  here 
commanding  either  the  absurd  or  the  impossible. 


1 36  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

In  this  very  passage  the  Master  illustrates  to  us 
what  he  here  means  by  the  “  Thou  shalt  love  thine 
enemy.” 

At  this  point  we  eschew  theories,  speculations 
and  philosophical  abstractions  to  confine  our  at¬ 
tention  to  what  the  Master  concretely  shows  the 
law  of  love  to  be.  The  words  in  which  the  law 
are  couched  is,  “  Love  your  enemies.”  This  is 
simply  Christ’s  striking,  forceful  way  of  putting 
the  law.  The  point  to  be  emphasized  in  the  new 
law  of  love  must  be  contrasted  with  the  point 
avoided  in  the  old  law  of  love  and  therefore  the 
stress  is  laid  on  “the  enemies”;  these  being 
the  particular  objects  of  the  love  of  the  will  be¬ 
cause  they  are  not  the  natural  objects  of  the  love 
of  the  affection.  He  then  proceeds  to  show  the 
content  and  method  of  application  of  this  law. 

Such  love  as  he  here  inculcates,  will  include, 
first,  maintaining  a  right  attitude  of  action  to¬ 
ward  them  —  expressing  itself  in  good  deeds. 
“  Do  good  to  them  that  hate  you  ”  is  the  way 
this  is  expressed  in  the  parallel  passage  in  Luke’s 
Gospel. 

Let  us  suppose  that  a  person  has  done  you  an 
injury  from  which  you  have  suffered  in  body,  mind 
or  estate ;  now  the  opportunity  arrives  when  you 
have  the  chance  to  express  yourself  toward  the 
enemy,  when,  in  other  words,  to  use  the  common 


LIVE  THE  PERFECT  LIFE  137 


phrase,  you  can  “  get  even.”  The  Master  here 
says  “  get  even  ”  by  doing  good  to  him  who  hath 
done  evil  to  you.  If  we  should  paraphrase  and 
expand  the  law  it  might  read  something  as  fol¬ 
lows:  It  is  a  man’s  highest  duty  not  to  do  any¬ 
thing  to  interfere  with  another  working  out  his 
own  highest  destiny.  It  is  further  a  man’s  high¬ 
est  duty  to  do  everything  he  can  to  help  another 
toward  the  fulfillment  of  his  highest  destiny. 
What  that  other  man  has  done  to  you  has  nothing 
to  do  with  your  obligation  or  obedience  to  this 
law. 

The  law  does  not  mean  that  you  are  to  have  a 
natural  affection  for  him,  it  does  not  mean  that 
you  are  to  “  divinely  dote  ”  upon  him,  but  it  does 
mean  that  you  are  to  deal  with  him  justly,  even 
according  to  the  law  of  love.  Such  a  practical 
love  as  that  is  perfectly  feasible  —  if  we  will,  and 
the  matter  rests  within  the  power  of  the  will; 
therefore  its  obedience  is  commanded. 

Secondly,  the  law  of  love  says,  as  recorded  in 
Luke,  that  we  are  to  “  bless  them  that  curse  you.” 
That  is,  we  are  to  keep  the  heart  from  assuming 
a  hostile  attitude  toward  another.  This  is  a  step 
in  advance,  perhaps  a  more  difficult  field  of  appli¬ 
cation  of  the  law.  One  thing  we  know  is  this, 
that  the  attitude  of  a  man’s  heart  and  mind  largely 
influences  the  attitude  of  his  life.  In  other  words, 


138  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

we  are  very  much  what  we  think  ourselves  to  be, 
and  things  are  very  much  what  we  think  them  to 
be. 

We  are  now  in  the  very  familiar  region,  so 
prominently  before  us  at  the  present  day,  of  the 
influence  of  the  mental  over  the  material  world. 
While  we  would  not  go  into  the  intricacies  of  the 
subject,  yet  there  is  broad  truth  in  the  underlying 
principles.  Choose  a  thing  and  you  will  like  it; 
refuse  a  thing  and  you  will  loathe  it;  set  yourself 
adversely  toward  a  person  and  you  will  dislike 
him;  set  yourself  favorably  toward  a  person  and 
you  will  find  him  more  tolerable.  The  Master 
here  directs  us  to  have  that  benign,  favorable, 
happy  attitude  toward  even  our  enemies,  as  would 
be  indicated  in  the  phrase  “  bless  them.”  And 
such  an  attitude  is  practicable  and  lies  within  the 
power  of  the  will.  This  was  the  attitude  of  heart 
that  David  had  against  his  declared  enemy  Shimei, 
who  stood  cursing  the  king  as  the  old  man  went 
forth  from  Jerusalem,  a  fugitive.  David’s  ad¬ 
herents  bade  him  to  act  according  to  the  old  law 
and  to  permit  them  to  cross  over  and  take  off 
Shimei’s  head;  but  David’s  spirit  was  humble  that 
day,  he  was  traveling  near  to  God,  and  so  he  did 
according  to  the  new  law  of  love  —  there  was  no 
rancor  in  his  heart,  no  bitterness  in  his  spirit;  he 
would  not  harm  his  enemy  when  he  could,  and  he 


LIVE  THE  PERFECT  LIFE  139 


returned  blessing  for  cursing.  David  towered 
above  himself  that  day,  majestic,  strong,  Christ- 
like;  this  law  of  love  molds  perfect  men. 

But,  still  further,  Jesus  illustrates  what  it 
means  practically  to  love  your  enemies,  he  ad¬ 
vances  a  step  more  —  we  must  maintain  the  right 
attitude  of  spirit  toward  them.  “  Pray  for  them 
that  despitefully  use  you.”  This  means  to  do 
justice  to  your  enemy  before  the  Throne  of  Grace; 
it  means  not  only  not  to  hinder  him,  not  to  harm 
him,  but  to  help  him  as  you  best  can.  And  this 
too  lies  within  the  power  of  the  man  who  will. 
Thus  men  have  done  and  thus  men  can  do. 
Jesus  prayed  for  his  persecutors,  while  they  were 
nailing  him  to  the  cross,  “  Father,  forgive  them 
for  they  know  not  what  they  do.”  Thus  have 
many  martyrs  since  that  time  prayed  for  those 
who  were  despitefully  using  them.  This  was  the 
attitude  of  the  spirit  of  Louis  XVI  and  his  Queen, 
Marie  Antoinette,  when  they  were  imprisoned,  in¬ 
sulted,  maltreated,  persecuted  by  the  mad  mob  of 
French  fanatics,  to  the  eternal  glory  of  these  royal 
spirits  and  to  the  eternal  shame  of  the  French  na¬ 
tion.  These  were  the  noble  words,  revealing  the 
nobler  spirit  of  the  suffering  queen,  “  Every  sus¬ 
picion  that  either  the  King  or  myself  feel  the  least 
resentment  for  what  happened  must  be  avoided; 
it  is  not  the  people  who  are  guilty,  and  even  if  it 


1 4o  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

were  they  would  always  obtain  pardon  and  forget¬ 
fulness  of  their  errors  from  us.”  2  This,  there¬ 
fore,  is  the  perfect  law  of  the  perfect  life  as  illus¬ 
trated  in  the  concrete  teachings  of  the  Christ. 

The  perfect  life  is  further  impressed  upon  our 
minds  by  a  consideration  of  its  motive  and  pat¬ 
tern.  We  are  to  observe  this  perfect  law  that  we 
may  be  the  sons  of  our  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

In  other  words,  this  is  the  echo  of  the  psalm¬ 
ist’s  estimate  of  man  as  “  Little  less  than  divine  ” 
and  the  forerunner  of  the  apostle  John’s  estimate 
of  man,  “  Now  are  we  the  sons  of  God.”  Man 
is  being  trained  for  companionship  with  God. 
There  can  be  no  true  companionship,  friendship  or 
fellowship  where  the  persons  have  not  something 
in  common.  For  a  complete  fellowship  the  art¬ 
ist  seeks  the  man  of  artistic  taste  and  apprecia¬ 
tion;  the  musician  finds  a  responsive  chord  in  those 
who  love  music;  the  litterateur  finds  companion¬ 
ship  in  the  lover  of  books;  the  man  of  morals 
and  religion  is  at  home  among  the  moral  and  re¬ 
ligious.  So  God  is  training  His  children  in  His 
way,  after  His  law,  that  they  may  be  able  to  en¬ 
joy  Him  forever.  Christ  here  teaches  us  that 
God’s  way  of  dealing  with  mankind,  even  with 
those  who  are  hostile  and  hateful,  is  the  way  of 

2  “  Marie  Antoinette  and  the  Downfall  of  Royalty,”  Imbert  De 
Saint  Amand,  p.  222. 


LIVE  THE  PERFECT  LIFE  141 


love.  His  goodness  is  shown  to  all,  in  food  and 
raiment,  and  breath  and  life,  and  all  good  things. 
The  man  who  curses  God  receives  from  God  the 
breath  with  which  he  curses,  and  Judas  is  in  the 
college  of  the  apostles.  Suppose  that  God  did 
the  way  of  the  world;  suppose  He  made  the  lim¬ 
ited  law  of  love  His  law,  loving  His  friends  and 
hating  His  enemies.  Some  think  that  thus  He 
ought  to  do  —  some  that  thus  He  does.  There 
are  those  that  marvel  that  the  blasphemer  is  not 
struck  dead  in  the  midst  of  his  blasphemies;  Job’s 
counselors  considered  that  it  was  only  the  impious 
and  the  wicked  that  were  afflicted. 

There  are  those  to-day  who  stand  ever  ready  to 
account  for  a  catastrophe  or  a  cataclysm  of  nature 
as  a  judgment  of  God  on  a  wicked  city,  or  a 
wicked  country.  And  James  and  John  were 
ready  to  call  down  the  fire  of  heaven  upon  Sama¬ 
ria  because  it  would  not  listen  to  the  words  of  the 
Christ.  But  the  Master  says  to  one  and  all  of 
these  classes,  to  James  and  John,  to  Job’s  coun¬ 
selors,  and  all  pious  accusers,  “  Ye  know  not  of 
what  manner  of  spirit  ye  are  of.”  God’s  law  of 
love  is  the  law  of  love  Christ  came  to  propound 
and  to  prove.  Had  God  so  done,  did  God  so  do, 
after  the  manner  of  the  law  of  love  as  promul¬ 
gated  and  practiced  by  men,  who  would  merit  His 
kindness?  Who  would  be  alive  to-day?  Who 


142  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

then  would  be  saved?  Nay,  it  is  his  divine  ob¬ 
servance  of  the  divine  law  —  it  is  because  He  is 
love  that  He  is  dear  to  us.  This  it  is  that  hath 
won  our  hearts;  this  it  is  that  hath  broken  our 
wills;  this  it  is  that  hath  humbled  our  pride,  this  it 
is  that  hath  begotten  our  love  for  Him.  And  it  is 
this  law  of  Love  that  shall  finally  draw  all  men 
unto  Him. 

But  suppose  that  we  still  act  according  to  the 
world’s  law  of  love  —  then  the  Master  shows  us 
what  will  be  the  consequence.  Says  Jesus,  “  Who 
does  as  the  world,  is  as  the  world.”  Can  that 
man  who  does  as  the  publicans,  as  the  nations,  as 
most  people  do,  be  any  better  than  these?  Then 
how  can  the  world  be  made  better?  How  can 
man  himself  become  better?  How  can  we  call 
ourselves  the  sons  of  God,  if  we  do  only  as  the 
sons  of  the  world? 

The  end  and  purpose  of  the  perfect  law  of  love 
is  exhibited  finally  by  the  command  to  live  the 
perfect  life.  In  this  high  end  we  have  revealed 
an  estimate  of  man’s  dignity  and  man’s  divinity. 
No  one  ever  charges  a  cat  with  being  immoral,  be¬ 
cause  the  cat  is  without  the  pale  of  morals  and  the 
moral  law  does  not  apply  to  the  cat.  You  would 
not  demand  of  a  child  knowledge  of  solid  geom¬ 
etry,  nor  would  you  expect  an  Andaman  Is¬ 
lander  to  be  familiar  with  the  technique  of  music. 


LIVE  THE  PERFECT  LIFE  143 

Little  is  required  of  these  because  they  are 
capable  of  little.  But  to  whom  much  is  given  of 
him  much  is  demanded;  and  conversely  when  it 
comes  to  the  commands  of  God  which  are  always 
reasonable,  when  high  demands  are  made  of  man 
it  evidences  his  capability  of  high  attainments. 
As  ability  entails  responsibility,  so  responsibility 
evidences  ability. 

In  this  high  end  intended  by  the  perfect  law  of 
love  we  have  the  promise  of  the  great  possibility 
within  man.  The  law,  and  the  pattern,  and  the 
command  seem  to  be  revolutionary,  ultra,  impos¬ 
sible.  But  it  is  not  impossible,  for  God  never 
asks  the  impossible.  It  is  difficult,  for  God  ever 
asks  the  difficult.  It  is  not  impossible  for  God 
lends  His  help  for  its  fulfillment;  as  we  shall  see 
in  a  later  chapter,  this  is  the  realm  where  the  in¬ 
junction,  “  Seek,  ask,  knock,”  obtains.  It  is  not 
impossible,  for  men  have  made  it,  and  men  are 
making  it  real  in  their  actual  life  to-day.  This 
law  is  the  very  heart  of  charities  and  philan¬ 
thropies;  it  is  the  gentle  cause  of  the  humanities 
in  so  inhuman  an  art  as  war;  it  is  the  root  from 
which  hath  grown  the  idea  of  brotherhood;  it  is 
the  bond  which  is  drawing  together  the  nations  of 
the  earth;  it  is  the  cure  which  is  working  the 
abolition  of  feuds. 

Moreover,  in  these  words  of  Christ,  “  Ye  shall 


144 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


be  perfect  even  as,”  etc.,  we  have  revealed  a 
prophecy  concerning  the  destiny  of  man.  While 
one  has  rightly  said,  that  “  truth  in  the  sense  of 
the  absolute  justice  is  a  thing  for  which  fools  look 
in  history  and  wise  men  in  the  Day  of  Judgment,” 
yet  in  these  words  of  promise  of  our  Master  we 
have  not  the  stuff  for  the  making  of  dreams  but 
the  solid  foundation  of  principle  on  which  we  can 
build  the  certain  expectation  of  the  coming  of  a 
day  when  the  law  of  love  having  wrought  its  per¬ 
fecting  work,  man  shall  show  justice  to  man,  in 
his  right  attitude  of  deed,  heart  and  spirit.  We 
have  here  the  vision  of  a  place  and  of  a  time  when 
the  law  of  love  shall  be  the  law  of  that  land.  In 
these  hopeful  words  of  the  Master  we  hear 
sounded  the  keynote  of  that  harmonious  anthem, 
which  shall  usher  in  the  dawn  of  the  second  crea¬ 
tion,  as  the  singing  of  the  morning  stars  together 
and  the  shouting  of  the  sons  of  God  made  music 
at  the  creation  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth. 
The  end  therefore  of  this  royal  law  is  man’s  per¬ 
fection,  completeness  and  entirety.  The  power 
is  that  Spirit  of  peace,  of  truth  and  of  love  that 
worketh  in  us  to  will  and  to  do  of  His  good  pleas¬ 
ure. 


CHAPTER  IX 


LIVE  THE  CHARITABLE  LIFE 
Matt,  vi,  1-4 

WE  have  now  finished  that  section  of  the 
Master’s  curriculum  wherein  he  has  taught 
his  learners  concerning  that  morality  worth  prac¬ 
ticing.  In  the  foregoing  words  he  has  laid  the 
foundations  of  a  sound  society,  and  erected  the 
fingerposts  pointing  the  way  to  a  happy  and 
strong  manhood.  His  regard  up  to  this  moment 
has  been  chiefly  concerning  our  relations  to  our 
fellow  men.  He  has  in  a  broad  way  pointed  out 
how  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  dwell  in  right 
relations  to  his  neighbor.  Now  a  step  in  advance 
is  taken  —  the  subject  progresses  to  a  higher 
level;  the  leading  idea  underlying  each  of  the 
three  following  sections  is  a  man’s  relation  to 
“  the  Father.”  The  Father  is  brought  to  the 
fore,  and  mentioned  prominently  in  each  of  these 
sections.  While  not  leaving  the  realm  of  a 
higher  morality,  yet  our  study  now  advances  to 
that  branch  of  human  thought  which  men  com¬ 
monly  denominate  religion,  and  our  teacher’s  pur¬ 
pose  here  is  to  show  especially  how  a  man  may  live 

145 


1 46  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

in  a  right  relation  to  God. 

The  first  great  thought  presented  under  this 
subject  is,  a  man  must  live  a  charitable  life.  The 
common  view  of  giving  differs  from  the  view  pre¬ 
sented  in  these  words  of  the  Master.  I  believe 
we  are  not  far  astray  when  we  say  that  men  com¬ 
monly  regard  giving  as  a  work  of  grace  and  not 
of  debt;  a  work  of  supererogation,  something  ex¬ 
tra,  something  by  way  of  addition,  something 
which  may  be  practiced  or  not  according  to  the 
will  of  the  man  himself  —  something  not  a  neces¬ 
sity  of  a  spiritual  religion. 

And  this  view,  it  seems  to  me,  is  evidenced  by 
the  world’s  approach  of  the  giver.  Cautiously, 
gently,  apologetically,  with  slippered-feet  and 
with  silver  tongue  let  a  man  approach  that  one 
from  whom  he  would  solicit  a  contribution  for 
any  charitable  or  religious  work.  This  is  a  sub¬ 
ject  from  which  the  phrase  “  you  ought  ”  must  be 
excluded.  A  man’s  pocket-book  and  property  are 
his  own  to  do  with  as  he  pleases,  and  to  refuse  to 
give  to  anything  is  the  privilege  of  the  world. 
This  is  further  evidenced  by  the  world’s  opinion 
of  the  giver.  As  a  people  we  regard  giving  as 
something  worthy  of  extra  praise  and  credit.  A 
man  may  be  moral  and  escape  the  notice  of  the 
papers,  he  may  be  religious  and  escape  publicity, 
he  may  be  honest  and  it  will  not  be  widely  noticed 


LIVE  THE  CHARITABLE  LIFE  147 


until  we  read  his  obituary,  but  let  him  be  largely 
charitable  and  his  name  will  be  heralded  in  every 
penny  sheet.  Why  is  this,  unless  the  charitable 
man  be  an  exception,  or  unless  charity  be  some¬ 
thing  of  unusual  merit?  To  say  of  a  woman  she 
is  pure  is  tantamount  to  an  insult;  to  say  she  is 
honest  is  a  doubtful  compliment;  to  say  of  her 
she  is  generous  and  charitable  is  to  say  that  which 
does  not  displease  her  and  which  gratifies  her 
friends.  A  man  must  be  honest;  he  must  be  just 
to  have  the  respect  of  his  fellows;  he  ought  to  be 
religious,  but  he  may  be  charitable. 

Nor  can  we  deny  that  ordinarily  the  giver  has 
a  good  opinion  of  himself.  That  spirit  which 
actuated  the  Pharisee  when  he  stood  up  in  the 
temple  to  pray,  and  which  led  him  to  say,  “  I  give 
tithes  of  all  I  possess,”  is  by  no  means  absent 
from  our  common  estimate  of  ourselves. 

These  things  are  so,  we  believe,  because  the 
practice  of  charity  and  giving  has  not  been  as¬ 
signed  its  true  and  rightful  position  in  the  great 
obligations  of  our  lives.  The  true  view  of  giv¬ 
ing  is  brought  before  our  minds  in  the  words  of 
our  Master  spoken  to  his  disciples  on  the  Mount, 
and  set  at  the  head  of  this  chapter.  Giving  is  a 
necessity  of  right  living.  That  man  does  not 
rightly  live  who  does  not  truly  give.  This  is 
shown  by  the  opening  words  of  our  Lord, 


i48  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

“  Take  heed  that  ye  do  not  your  righteousness  be¬ 
fore  men,  to  be  seen  of  them,”  are  the  words  with 
which  he  begins  this  part  of  his  discourse. 
Righteousness  —  or  man’s  right  relation  to  his 
God,  is  the  general  theme.  “  Therefore  when 
thou  doest  thine  alms,”  is  the  particular  inference 
from  the  general  theme.  Almsgiving,  charity, 
therefore,  is  a  first  element  of  acceptable  right¬ 
eousness,  and  without  giving  a  man  cannot  be 
pleasing  to  his  God.  In  one  brief  word  —  there 
are  three  ways  in  which  a  man  may  be  acceptable 
to  God  —  these  are  adduced  and  elaborated  suc¬ 
cessively. 

Charity  is  the  first,  prayer  is  the  second  and  self- 
denial  is  the  third.  These  forms  of  elemental 
righteousness  the  Pharisee  himself  recognized, 
for  he  says,  “  I  give,”  “  I  pray,”  and  “  I  fast,” 
and  no  man  can  even  pretend  to  live  in  a  right  re¬ 
lation  to  his  heavenly  Father  unless  he  observes 
these  three  principles  of  a  right  life. 

A  moment’s  thought  will  reveal  to  a  true  man 
why  he  ought  to  give.  While  men  differ  in  rank, 
station  and  talent;  while  they  occupy  unequal 
levels,  and  enjoy  unequal  privileges;  yet  it  is  true 
that  of  one  blood  made  He  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  and  men  have  a  common  lot  and  live  a  com¬ 
mon  life.  The  great  law  of  love,  which  the 
Master  has  given  as  the  norm  for  the  guidance  of 


LIVE  THE  CHARITABLE  LIFE  149 


the  conduct  of  all  God’s  family,  says  to  man  in  no 
unmistakable  terms,  that  he  shall  share  his 
strength,  his  time,  his  talent,  his  food,  his  riches, 
with  that  other  less  gifted  and  more  needy  than 
himself.  How  more  plainly  could  this  truth  be 
expressed  than  it  is  in  the  words  of  the  Apostle  of 
Love  in  his  letter  to  “  his  little  children  ”  in  I 
John  iii,  17,  “  But  whoso  hath  this  world’s  good, 
and  seeth  his  brother  have  need,  and  shutteth  up 
his  bowels  of  compassion  from  him,  how  dwelleth 
the  love  of  God  in  him?  ”  “  My  little  children, 

let  us  not  love  in  word,  neither  in  tongue;  but  in 
deed  and  in  truth.”  If  we  love  God,  we  shall 
love  those  who  are  God’s  children,  and  if  we  love 
not  God’s  children  better  than  we  love  our  goods 
we  are  none  of  His. 

Christ’s  first  teaching  to  his  learners  is  that  they 
are  to  be  of  use  and  service  in  this  world,  and  how 
can  a  man  be  of  real  use  save  as  he  giveth  of  him¬ 
self  for  the  service  of  the  world?  We  are  to  be 
God-like;  how  can  a  man  be  more  God-like  than 
to  resemble  in  liberality  and  charity  the  Giver  of 
every  good  gift  and  of  every  perfect  giving? 
That  man  who  pretends  to  be  religious,  but  who 
does  not  give,  has  not  truly  fulfilled  the  first  prin¬ 
ciple  of  the  simplest  religious  life.  I  come  more 
and  more  to  believe  that  the  pocket-book  is  a 
trustworthy  test  of  the  reality  and  genuineness  of 


1 5o  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


a  man’s  religion.  It  is  easy  to  say,  “  I  believe 
that  Jesus  is  the  Savior  of  the  world  to  declare 
that  the  Gospel  ought  to  be  preached  to  every 
creature;  to  magnify  and  laud  the  transforming 
and  enlightening  power  of  the  Word.  But  the 
practical  question  is,  How  much  do  you  believe  it? 
Do  you  believe  it  to  the  extent  of  parting  with 
dollars  and  cents  for  the  support  of  the  Gospel, 
the  spread  of  the  Word,  the  feeding  and  giving  to 
drink  to  the  needy  ones  of  earth?  —  then  you  be¬ 
lieve  it  in  deed  and  in  truth.  Do  you  believe  it 
only  to  the  giving  of  pious  utterances  and  Phari¬ 
saic  speeches,  then  you  believe  neither  in  deed  nor 
in  truth.  The  man  who  gave  two  cents  to  the 
last  mission  collection  does  not  believe  very  sin¬ 
cerely  in  missions,  howsoever  much  he  may  prate 
about  them. 

Giving  has  not  the  place  in  our  lives  that  it 
ought  to  have  according  to  the  teaching  of  our 
Lord.  It  does  not  occupy  the  place  in  our  busi¬ 
ness  budget,  in  our  estimates  of  expenses,  that  it 
was  intended  to  occupy.  If  God’s  people  gave  in 
anything  like  a  proportionate  ratio  to  their  privi¬ 
lege  and  to  their  ability,  the  church  to-day  would 
be  spared  much  of  that  humiliation  of  appeal  to 
which  she  is  subjected,  and  would  no  longer  be  re¬ 
garded  as  a  “  begging  institution.”  And  ob¬ 
serve  here,  an  appeal  does  not  make  an  obli- 


LIVE  THE  CHARITABLE  LIFE  15 1 


gation;  it  merely  exhibits  it  —  the  obligation  ex¬ 
ists  before  the  appeal  is  made.  Giving  is  an  obli¬ 
gation  which  no  follower  of  the  religion  of  Christ 
will  want  to  escape.  Giving  is  one  of  the  great¬ 
est  means  of  Christian  grace.  I  am  persuaded 
that  that  man  who  gives  freely,  gives  gladly,  gives 
as  an  act  of  worship  to  God,  and  as  a  God-like 
privilege  which  he  may  exercise  in  helpfulness  to¬ 
wards  God’s  children,  is  one  to  whom  the  heart 
of  God  goes  out,  upon  whom  the  love  and  peace 
of  God  abideth,  one  whose  charity  covers  a  multi¬ 
tude  of  sins.  The  man  who  does  not  give,  does 
not  love  God. 

How  can  a  man  ever  be  like  God  and  not  give, 
for  God  is  the  great,  bounteous,  willing  Giver. 
What  are  we  that  He  has  not  made  us?  What 
have  we  that  He  has  not  given  to  us?  Who  lives 
in  this  world  lives  in  a  house  which  God  hath 
given  to  him ;  daily  we  sit  at  His  table  and  par¬ 
take  of  that  abundance  which  He  hath  supplied; 
our  eyes  are  feasted  upon  the  beauties  of  field  and 
sky  and  sea;  our  minds  rejoice  in  the  powers  with 
which  He  hath  equipped  us;  our  hearts  sing  and 
our  lives  laugh  because  He  in  his  giving  hath 
made  it  possible.  And  what  have  we  to  hope  for 
in  the  ages  to  come  but  the  bounty  of  His  benefi¬ 
cence  and  the  eternal  riches  of  His  love? 

We  hear  much  mention  made  in  Scripture  — 


1 52  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

especially  in  the  Old  Testament  —  of  “God’s 
poor,”  and  there  are  some  who  are  wont  to  look 
with  a  kind  of  calm  complacency  and  a  con¬ 
descending  compassion  on  “  God’s  poor,”  as 
though  they  were  a  class  by  themselves,  and  with 
whom  we  had  no  vital  connection.  But  who  are 
God’s  poor?  Let  us  pause  a  moment  to  inquire. 
In  the  experience  of  my  imagination,  a  while  ago 
I  encountered  two  of  those  commonly  called 
“  God’s  poor,”  sitting  at  the  corner  of  Twenty- 
third  Street  and  Sixth  Avenue,  New  York.  I  had 
seen  these  two  old  men  there  many  times,  I  be¬ 
came  interested  in  them,  gradually  got  acquainted 
with  them,  and  was  eventually  invited  to  visit  the 
rooms  where  they  lodged.  It  was  at  the  close 
of  a  summer’s  day  that  I  walked  home  with  them 
to  their  unattractive  quarters  on  the  East  Side. 
The  evening  was  close  and  hot  and  their  surround¬ 
ings  seemed  anything  but  inviting,  yet  I  was  in¬ 
terested  in  the  conversation,  for  they  had  had  a 
particularly  successful  day,  and  so  the  externali¬ 
ties  of  their  life  were  more  bearable  to  me  than 
they  might  otherwise  have  been.  These  men 
were  beggars,  not  by  choice  but  by  necessity;  they 
had  lived  past  their  time,  physical  debility  and  the 
taking  away  of  those  upon  whom  they  might  have 
been  naturally  dependent  compelled  them  to  sit 
with  extended  hand  waiting  the  charity  of  those 


LIVE  THE  CHARITABLE  LIFE  153 


whose  hearts  moved  them  to  give.  They  told  me 
much  of  their  lives  that  would  be  irrelevant  here, 
but  to-night  they  were  glad  of  heart  for  one  had 
made  two  dollars  and  the  other  something  over 
four  that  day,  and  the  world  for  the  moment 
seemed  “  very  good.”  As  I  came  away  from 
their  rooms  I  speculated  on  what  I  had  seen.  The 
question  arose  in  my  mind,  which  is  the  more 
needy,  the  poorer,  which  is  the  greater  beggar, 
which  is  the  more  dependent,  the  more  indebted, 
the  man  who  had  received  the  two  dollars  or  the 
one  who  had  received  the  four  dollars?  Obvi¬ 
ously  the  answer  was  that  the  man  who  had  re¬ 
ceived  the  most  was  the  most  indebted,  the  most 
dependent,  and  the  greater  beggar  of  the  two,  if 
there  be  degrees  in  such  a  state.  But  I  passed 
this  same  corner  another  time,  and  glancing  as 
I  passed  to  see  if  my  acquaintances,  the  old  men, 
were  there,  I  saw  that  they  were  not  in  their  ac¬ 
customed  places  that  day,  but  alongside  of  the 
spot  they  were  wont  to  occupy  an  automobile  was 
drawn  up  to  the  curb.  What  a  beautiful  thing 
this  great  touring  car  was;  what  a  contrast  it  and 
its  richly  garbed  occupants  made  to  the  two 
squalid  old  men  who  usually  sat  there  to  beg! 
The  incident  was  all  the  more  interesting  to  me 
because  I  knew  the  family  to  whom  the  car  be¬ 
longed;  I  knew  how  their  money  was  gotten;  it 


i54  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

was  inherited  from  their  father,  and  not  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  his  family  had  done  a  serious  day’s  work 
in  his  life,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge.  But 
where  did  the  father  get  all  these  riches?  From 
mines  in  California?  And  who  put  the  gold  into 
the  mines?  Certainly  it  was  none  other  than 
God. 

Thus  my  mind  ran  on  in  this  idle  yet  half  log¬ 
ical  way,  and  I  saw  the  problem  so  clearly  as  I 
had  never  seen  it  before.  Then  I  applied  the 
same  test-question  I  had  put  to  the  condition  of 
the  old  men.  The  old  men  were  commonly 
called  beggars,  “God’s  poor”;  these  who  stood 
in  their  places  to-day  were  termed  rich,  independ¬ 
ent.  And  yet  in  this  instance  was  not  the  right 
answer  the  same  that  had  been  made  before? 
Was  it  not  true  that  those  who  had  received  most 
were  most  indebted,  those  who  had  been  helped 
most  were  most  dependent?  And  I  concluded, 
if  there  are  any  degrees  in  the  matter,  that  the 
rich  man  is  the  most  indebted,  the  most  depend¬ 
ent;  the  real  poor  is  the  one  who  has  been  most 
helped  by  God.  In  short,  we  are  all  tenants  of 
the  tenement  of  God;  we  are  all  dependents  on 
the  bounty  of  the  great  Giver,  and  there  is  not 
a  man  but  who  must  hold  out  his  hat  to  the  Al¬ 
mighty. 

The  principle  of  giving  is  ingrained  into  the 


LIVE  THE  CHARITABLE  LIFE  155 


very  constitution  of  things.  “  Give  and  it  shall 
be  given  unto  you,”  is  the  witnessing  of  every 
well-stored  garden,  the  testimony  of  every  burst¬ 
ing  barn.  The  tiniest  flower  that  blooms,  had 
we  eyes  to  see  it,  in  the  course  of  its  short  life 
teaches  us  that  it  lives  not  for  itself  alone,  but 
it,  too,  must  contribute  of  its  vital  seed  for  the 
adorning  and  beautifying  of  this  fair  earth.  Man 
on  his  physical  side  recognizes  the  essential  truth 
of  the  principle  of  giving;  behold  the  athlete, 
with  his  symmetrical,  strong  body,  with  his  lithe 
limbs  and  gnarled  muscles;  ask  him  whence  he 
got  his  strength  and  he  will  tell  you  by  giving 
his  strength.  Even  the  business  world  recog¬ 
nizes  the  ultimate  truth  of  the  principle,  and 
teaches  its  disciples  that  money  is  saved  not  by 
hoarding  it  but  by  investing  it.  In  the  world 
spiritual  the  more  a  man  spends,  the  more  he 
saves;  the  more  he  gives,  the  more  he  gets. 
Over  all  this  vast  creation  which  bears  the  im¬ 
press  of  the  generous  God  is  written  that  prin¬ 
ciple  of  charity,  which  he  that  hath  eyes  to  see 
may  see,  and  which  the  wise  man  of  olden  day 
has  expressed  in  words  that  are  everlastingly  true. 
“There  is  that  scattereth  and  yet  increaseth; 
there  is  that  withholdeth  more  than  is  meet,  but 
it  tendeth  to  poverty.” 

However,  in  this  present  teaching  of  our  Mas- 


1 56  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

ter  the  emphasis  is  not  laid  on  the  necessity  of 
giving;  that  is  assumed;  it  is  taken  for  granted 
that  a  man  who  would  be  pleasing  to  God  shall 
give,  and  our  Teacher’s  chief  thought  is  turned 
to  the  method  of  giving.  “  Therefore  when  thou 
doest  thine  alms,”  says  Jesus,  do  it  in  a  way  that 
is  pleasing  to  your  heavenly  Father.  Should  we 
ask  what  manner  of  giving  is  pleasing  to  God,  we 
receive  our  answer:  in  the  manner  in  which  God 
is  constantly  giving.  Secretly,  silently,  unosten¬ 
tatiously  is  the  method  of  God’s  giving.  So  se¬ 
cretly  and  silently  does  He  give  that  many  men 
to-day  do  not  recognize  that  their  lives  and  all 
that  support  and  make  possible  their  lives  is  the 
gift  of  God. 

How  crude  and  dull  of  mind  and  heart  we  are, 
to  declare  that  God’s  sustenance  of  the  Children 
of  Israel  in  the  wilderness  of  Zin  in  the  olden 
time  is  miraculous  and  not  to  see  that  God’s  sup¬ 
port  and  sustenance  of  all  His  children  in  every 
time  and  in  the  wilderness  of  the  world  is  equally 
miraculous !  Because  we  do  not  see  a  visible 
hand  of  God  filled  with  the  food  for  our  tables, 
because  God  gives  us  our  fruit  and  our  grain 
through  the  broad  hand  of  the  well-filled  bough, 
and  the  tiny  hand  of  the  stalk  of  wheat,  we  do 
not  rightly  recognize  the  gift  of  food  from  our 
heavenly  Father.  And  yet  this  is  the  character- 


LIVE  THE  CHARITABLE  LIFE  157 


izing  mark  of  all  of  God’s  gifts.  The  very  man¬ 
ner  of  giving  shows  it  to  be  from  God.  Light 
is  the  gift  of  God  —  necessary  to  all  life;  with¬ 
out  light,  no  life;  and  yet  did  you  ever  note  how 
the  light  comes?  Quietly,  gradually,  stealthily, 
unobtrusively  it  dawns,  and  God’s  day  is  about 
us.  God’s  great  gift  of  light  vivifies  us.  So  did 
God  give  His  unspeakable  gift  of  Jesus  Christ 
—  in  the  darkness,  in  the  night,  in  a  tiny  spot  of 
earth,  in  a  rockhewn  cave,  as  a  little  child,  thus 
came  God’s  greatest  gift  to  man.  So  comes  that 
good  gift  of  His  own  Spirit,  which  He  is  more 
ready  to  give  to  us  than  we  are  to  give  good  gifts 
to  our  children,  quietly,  gently,  softly  as  the  dew 
upon  the  grass,  we  cannot  tell  whence  he  cometh, 
we  cannot  always  tell  when  he  cometh,  but  we 
only  know  that  he  is  here.  The  day  of  Pentecost 
was  by  no  means  a  type  of  the  normal  manner 
of  the  coming  of  the  Spirit.  The  manner  of  his 
coming  at  Pentecost  was  as  much  a  departure 
from  the  normal  manner  of  his  coming  as  was 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus  an  abnormality  in  the 
realm  of  physical  death.  And  this  is  the  method 
of  all  God’s  giving. 

As  our  heavenly  Father  giveth,  so  ought  we 
to  give,  for  we  are  to  be  like  Him  in  this,  and 
this  is  the  teaching  of  our  Savior.  Therefore, 
says  Jesus,  “  When  thou  doest  thine  alms,”  do 


158  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

not  do  them  showily,  noisily,  with  a  sound  of 
trumpets  and  a  publication  of  the  fact  of  your 
liberality,  but  give  so  quietly  that  “  your  left  hand 
knoweth  not  what  your  right  hand  giveth.” 
Worship  God  in  your  giving  “  in  secret.”  Giving 
is  a  spiritual  act,  an  act  of  worship,  and  so  a  mat¬ 
ter  unseen,  hidden,  not  for  the  applause  of  men 
but  for  the  sake  of  your  Father. 

I  recollect  to  have  seen  in  the  little  town  of 
Witney,  England,  one  of  the  most  refreshing  in¬ 
stances  of  this  humble  and  hidden  method  of  giv¬ 
ing.  There  is  there  situated  a  charitable  insti¬ 
tution  of  some  sort;  the  building  is  of  stone  and 
of  goodly  proportions,  representing  an  outlay  of 
a  large  sum  of  money.  Across  the  front  of  it, 
carven  in  letters  of  stone  there  is  this  inscrip¬ 
tion,  “  Give  God  the  Praise.”  There  is  no  men¬ 
tion  of  the  name  of  the  donor,  no  word  of  praise 
of  his  gift.  The  purpose  of  that  gift,  it  seemed 
to  me,  was  plain  —  for  the  praise  of  God;  the 
method  of  it  was  perfect,  and  that  building 
stands  to-day  a  silent  act  of  worship  in  stone  to 
the  Almighty  and  an  abiding  testimony  to  the 
right  method  of  giving.  Giving,  according  to 
Christ’s  teaching,  is  primarily  an  act  of  worship, 
a  thing  that  is  to  be  done  for  the  sake  of  the 
Father,  and  therefore  ought  to  be  done  in  the 
way  that  is  acceptable  to  the  Father,  and  not  for 


LIVE  THE  CHARITABLE  LIFE  159 


the  praise  or  approval  of  men. 

Then  the  Master  further  assigns  a  practical 
reason  for  giving  after  this  manner.  Those  who 
give  to  be  seen  of  men  receive  their  reward; 
“  they  have  their  reward.”  It  is  a  reward  that 
is  visible,  temporal  and  unsatisfactory.  They  are 
seen  of  men,  they  are  to-day  noted  in  the  papers. 
They  have  the  satisfaction  of  having  their  char¬ 
ity  and  generosity  commented  upon,  and  not  in¬ 
frequently  criticised  and  minimized.  They  re¬ 
ceive  their  degrees  and  titles  as  a  reward  for  their 
charities,  and  when  they  have  received  them, 
what  are  they  worth?  In  other  words,  giving  as 
an  earthly  and  material  investment  is  not  worth 
while;  it  does  not  bring  in  the  returns  that  one 
might  expect,  as  the  heart-disappointment  of 
many  a  charitable  man  has  proven.  For  those 
who  give  after  this  earthly,  imperfect  manner, 
have  no  reward  from  God;  no  spiritual  satisfac¬ 
tion;  no  inner  blessing;  no  future  prospect  of  rec¬ 
ognition  by  the  Father;  nothing,  to  resort  to  a 
commercial  figure,  on  heaven’s  ledger  to  their 
credit.  But  those  who  give  as  an  act  of  wor¬ 
ship;  those  who  give  unostentatiously,  in  secret, 
and  for  the  sake  of  God,  have  the  assurance  that 
God  sees  their  gift,  God  approves  their  gift,  God 
recognizes  the  giver  and  God  will  recompense 
them  openly. 


160  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


In  that  last  judgment  scene,  recorded  in  the 
twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Matthew,  where  the  na¬ 
tions  are  gathered  before  the  Lord  for  his  ap¬ 
proval  or  disapproval,  the  grace  that  sets  those 
at  his  right  hand  is  the  grace  of  charity.  And 
how  beautiful  is  the  kind  of  giving  that  is  there 
pictured;  those  who  are  there  termed  the  right¬ 
eous  are  those  who  gave  to  the  necessity  of  their 
fellows,  and  those  who  in  their  giving  gave  so 
simply,  so  naturally,  so  in  accord  with  the  Mas¬ 
ter’s  teaching  that  they  had  forgotten  that  they 
had  given,  and  were  unaware  that  they  had  min¬ 
istered  unto  the  wants  of  their  needy  brethren, 
until  the  Lord  himself  awakened  them  with  the 
sweet  surprise,  “  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto 
the  least  of  these  my  brethren  ye  have  done  it 
unto  me.”  Surely  there  is  no  more  spiritual  grace 
than  the  grace  of  giving;  no  more  acceptable  act 
of  worship  than  the  act  of  giying;  and  I  am  per¬ 
suaded,  on  the  authority  of  Scripture  and  on  the 
authority  of  the  Master’s  own  words,  that  it  is 
charity  and  charity  of  this  kind  that  shall  cover 
a  multitude  of  sins. 


CHAPTER  X 


LIVE  THE  PRAYERFUL  LIFE 
Matt,  vi,  5-15 

IT  had  indeed  been  a  strange  thing  if  Jesus  had 
taught  his  disciples  nothing  concerning  prayer. 
It  would  have  been  beyond  explanation  if  one 
whose  religion  was  the  very  essence  of  spiritual¬ 
ity,  one  who  lived  in  such  close  and  intimate  touch 
with  the  invisible  and  heavenly  world,  one  who 
dwelt  in  such  perfect  harmony  with  God  that  he 
could  say,  “  I  and  my  Father  are  one,”  one  whose 
life  was  the  visible  expression  of  the  power  of 
prayer,  the  perfect  exemplification  of  the  life  of 
prayer  —  we  say  it  would  have  been  inexplicable 
if  this  one  had  not  taught  his  disciples  and  the 
world  something  on  the  subject  of  prayer.  In 
this  passage  now  before  us  we  have  the  Master’s 
teaching  on  this  important  theme. 

That  he  speaks  at  this  time  on  the  theme  of 
prayer  is  not  by  chance  nor  is  this  subject  illog- 
ically  related  to  the  subject  of  giving,  which  he 
has  just  explained.  The  theme  of  charity  and 
alms-giving  follows  directly  and  logically  from 
what  the  Teacher  has  said  concerning  the  perfect 


1 62  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


life  and  the  law  of  love.  There  he  has  taught 
us  that  we  are  to  be  the  children  of  our  heavenly 
Father,  who  “  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil 
and  on  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and 
the  unjust  in  other  words,  as  God  is  a  giver,  so 
are  we  to  be  givers,  and  the  theme  of  liberality  and 
charity  is  born  of  the  root  of  love.  After  like 
manner  the  matter  of  prayer  follows  with  a  logical 
propriety  after  a  consideration  of  the  theme  of  giv¬ 
ing,  for  prayer  in  its  broadest,  deepest  aspect  rests 
on  and  rises  from  a  realization  of  man’s  utter  de¬ 
pendence  on  the  gifts  of  God,  and  in  its  most  ele¬ 
mental  form  prayer  is  the  making  known  of  our 
wants  to  God,  and  its  chief  mark  in  this  stage  of  its 
development  is  petition.  That  petition  is  a  divi¬ 
sion  of  prayer  all  works  and  all  authorities  on 
the  subject  clearly  maintain. 

That  prayer  is  the  making  known  our  wants, 
the  asking  for  those  things  which  we  need,  is 
clearly  evidenced  by  a  consideration  of  prayer  as 
it  is  commonly  practiced;  the  child  idea  of  prayer 
is  that  it  is  a  means  by  which  we  get  what  we 
ask  for,  and  many  a  life  has  never  gotten  beyond 
this  true,  though  primal  and  incomplete,  idea  of 
prayer.  This  is  a  danger,  that  prayer  shall  be 
considered  merely  as  a  want  bureau,  and  a  spirit¬ 
ual  exercise  shall  be  made  to  promote  our  selfish¬ 
ness.  At  all  events,  the  fact  that  God  supplies 


LIVE  THE  PRAYERFUL  LIFE  163 


our  every  need  is  closely  connected  with  the 
thought  that  we  have  a  right  to  make  known  our 
needs  unto  God  —  and  giving  and  praying  are 
related  subjects. 

But  prayer  is  something  more  than  the  act  of 
making  known  our  wants  to  God  —  out  of  this 
same  truth  of  God’s  giving  and  our  heavenly 
Father’s  provision  for  our  entire  life,  rises  the 
next  idea  of  prayer,  that  it  is  a  grateful  recogni¬ 
tion  of  those  many  gifts  and  perfect  givings  that 
have  already  come  from  Him.  The  element  of 
thanksgiving  enters  into  true  prayer  —  and  the 
grateful  heart  here  has  a  means  of  exercising  the 
true  and  proper  sentiment  of  gratitude.  But 
prayer  in  a  still  higher  aspect  is  an  act  of  wor¬ 
ship.  It  is  the  means  by  which  the  spirit  of  man 
comes  into  touch  with  the  Spirit  of  God.  It  is 
the  communion  of  the  spiritual  with  the  spiritual; 
the  intercourse  of  earthly  person  with  the  heavenly 
Person;  it  is  the  way  of  praise,  glory,  exaltation, 
aspiration;  it  is  the  breath  of  the  soul,  the  wings 
of  the  spirit,  the  secret  stairway  to  power,  the 
one  exercise  enjoyed  in  common  between  the 
dwellers  on  this  earth  and  the  inhabitants  of  the 
heavenly  places.  It  is  the  highest  act  of  which 
the  mortal  spirit  is  capable;  it  is  the  acceptable 
worship  of  God;  it  is  the  true  practice  of  right¬ 
eousness,  and  under  this  head  of  the  “  doing  of 


1 64  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

righteousness  ”  the  Master  here  refers  to  prayer. 

Prayer  in  all  its  forms,  whether  of  petition, 
supplication,  thanksgiving  or  worship  is  a  neces¬ 
sity  of  the  human  soul.  This  is  clearly  shown 
from  a  consideration  of  the  universality  of  the 
practice  of  prayer.  The  record  of  the  most  spir¬ 
itual  peoples  given  in  the  Bible  and  the  records  of 
the  most  material  and  carnal  peoples  given  in  the 
histories  of  the  world,  are  one  in  witnessing  to 
this  fact,  that  men  pray  to  the  Power  that  is  with¬ 
out  them,  the  God  that  is  above  them,  in  all  na¬ 
tions  and  at  all  times.  Even  back  of  the  evi¬ 
dence  of  the  fact  seems  to  lie  the  explanation  of 
the  fact  —  prayer  is  an  instinct  of  the  soul.  It 
is  a  pouring  out  of  the  soul  in  the  presence  of  a 
stronger  and  wiser  than  can  be  found  among  the 
sons  of  men,  thus  giving  vent  to  that  ineradicable 
appetence  of  the  soul,  the  desire  for  confession. 
It  is  a  lifting  up  of  the  spirit  of  man  toward 
that  which  is  highest  and  best  in  the  universe, 
thus  giving  the  most  perfect  exercise  to  that  di¬ 
vinity  which  stirs  within  us,  that  larger  self  which 
dwells  within  this  narrow  house,  whose  cry  for 
the  upper  air,  whose  call  for  the  larger  life,  we 
term  aspiration. 

But  prayer  is  further  a  privilege  which  the 
good  God  has  vouchsafed  to  the  children  of  men. 
It  is  the  present  evidence  within  our  very  hearts 


LIVE  THE  PRAYERFUL  LIFE  165 


that  when  He  completed  the  world,  He  did  not 
cast  it  off  into  space  to  spin  its  course  alone  and 
unattended.  Prayer  is  that  golden  touch  which 
binds  the  earth  to  the  footstool  of  its  Maker;  it 
is  the  ladder  of  communication  between  the  hu¬ 
man  creature  and  his  Creator;  it  is  the  access  of 
the  subject  to  the  King  of  kings  and  the  Lord  of 
lords;  it  is  the  door  of  that  room  where  dwelleth 
the  Father,  open  at  all  times  to  the  entrance  of 
the  Father’s  little  children. 

But  prayer  is  still  more  than  this;  it  is  a  reli¬ 
gious  culture,  the  best  and  the  truest  that  man 
can  practice.  In  prayer  we  glorify  His  wisdom 
and  power;  in  prayer  we  recall  His  goodness; 
in  prayer  we  meditate  upon  His  mercy;  in  prayer 
we  recognize  the  reality  and  have  the  proof  of 
His  forgiveness  and  favor;  in  prayer  every  at¬ 
tribute,  quality  and  manifestation  of  God  may  be 
rightly  recalled  and  dwelt  upon,  not  now  from  a 
theological  or  controversial  standpoint,  but  from 
a  spiritual  and  practical  side,  and  thus  prayer 
maintains  and  inculcates  a  vivid  sense  of  the  real¬ 
ity  and  nearness  of  God,  and  impresses  upon  our 
minds  and  lives  a  true  picture  of  His  glory,  char¬ 
acter  and  being.  Thus  prayer  is  the  best  culture 
of  the  soul. 

Therefore,  since  prayer  is  of  the  nature  and 
of  the  use  that  we  have  here  briefly  seen  it  to 


1 66  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


be,  since  it  is  a  practice  ingrained  in  our  natures, 
commanded  in  Scripture  implicitly  and  explicitly, 
it  is  not  strange  that  our  Master  devotes  so  large 
a  part  of  this  short  discourse  to  a  teaching  con¬ 
cerning  prayer;  it  would  have  been  passing  strange 
had  he  not  done  so. 

As  in  the  former  section,  that  concerning  giv¬ 
ing,  so  here,  the  emphasis  is  not  laid  on  the  fact 
of  the  practice,  but  on  the  manner  of  it.  The 
fact  that  men  will  and  ought  to  pray  is  taken  for 
granted,  as  the  words  “  and  when  thou  prayest  ” 
signify,  but  that  when  men  pray  they  should  pray 
as  God  would  have  them  pray  is  the  object  of  the 
Master’s  teaching  in  this  passage.  And  so  in  the 
first  section  of  this  teaching  he  tells  us  what  prayer 
ought  not  to  be.  The  first  warning  he  gives  as 
to  prayer  is  that  prayer  is  not  to  be  ostentatious 
but  “  in  secret.”  A  prayer  that  is  right  and  ac¬ 
ceptable  with  God  does  not  depend  upon  posture, 
elegance  or  aptness  of  expression,  inventiveness 
of  thought  or  form,  but  upon  the  simple  and  genu¬ 
ine  outpouring  of  the  spirit  of  man  in  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  There  is  need  for 
warning  just  at  this  point,  for  though  a  man  may 
come  to  that  high  thought  of  prayer  that  it  is  a 
means  of  worship  of  God,  yet  one  can  discover 
in  himself  and  see  in  the  history  of  public  prayer 
the  peril  that  naturally  arises  at  this  point.  Men 


LIVE  THE  PRAYERFUL  LIFE  167 


are  prone  to  confound  the  substance  with  the 
form,  to  feel  that  if  the  form  is  correct  the  fact 
itself  is  correct,  and  so  to  lay  the  emphasis  at  the 
wrong  place  in  the  practice  of  prayer.  In  other 
words,  that  man  who  in  his  prayers  prays  to  be 
seen  of  men,  approved  by  the  cultured,  endorsed 
by  the  educated,  rather  than  to  give  expression 
of  his  simple  soul  in  a  simple  way  to  God,  is  the 
man  who  has  missed  the  central  idea  of  prayer. 
Prayer  is  a  concern  between  an  individual  and  his 
God.  It  is  an  attitude  of  soul  rather  than  an  at¬ 
titude  of  body.  And  a  man  might  repeat  the 
most  rhetorical  and  perfectly  worded  prayer  that 
was  ever  constructed,  and  yet  utter  a  prayer  that 
reaches  no  higher  from  earth  than  the  ears  of 
that  audience  before  whom  and  for  whom  the 
prayer  is  primarily  given.  Such  a  prayer  is  a 
prayer  to  an  audience  and  not  a  prayer  to  God. 
Such  was  the  prayer  characterized  in  a  Boston 
paper  as  “  the  most  eloquent  prayer  ever  deliv¬ 
ered  to  a  Boston  audience.”  The  weakness  of 
ostentatious  prayer  is  that  a  man  will  not  be  true 
to  himself  nor  to  his  God.  It  was  because  he 
knew  that  others  were  hearing  him,  and  he  was 
praying  for  their  ears  rather  than  for  the  ear 
of  God,  that  the  Pharisee  uttered  that  bombastic 
and  boastful  prayer  in  the  temple. 

The  secret,  private,  individual,  spiritual  char- 


1 68  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


acter  of  true  prayer  is  most  markedly  empha¬ 
sized  in  the  words  of  our  Lord.  He  says,  “  But 
thou,  when  thou  prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet,  and 
when  thou  hast  shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy  Father 
which  is  in  secret.”  This  most  clearly  exhibits 
the  inner  character  of  prayer;  it  is  an  opening 
of  the  heart  and  mind  to  God.  This  is  a  moment 
when  a  man  must  be  utterly  forgetful  of  appear¬ 
ances  —  this  is  a  time  when  a  man  must  be  emi¬ 
nently  truthful,  sincere,  simple.  This  is  the  phase 
of  prayer  illustrated  in  David’s  words  when  he 
says,  “  Search  me,  O  God,  and  know  my  heart; 
try  me,  and  know  my  thoughts;  and  see  if  there 
be  any  way  of  grief  or  pain  within  me,  and  lead 
me  in  the  way  which  is  everlasting.” 

The  words  of  our  Lord  simply  emphasize  the 
honest  and  secret  character  of  the  truest  form  of 
prayer.  They  do  not  inveigh  against  public 
prayer,  for  this  must  be  the  characteristic  of  even 
public  prayer;  for  the  individual,  such  prayer  is 
really  “  in  secret,”  and  a  matter  between  each  soul 
and  his  God,  and  therefore  no  minister  can  pray 
for  a  people,  or  with  a  people,  unless  the  people 
are  with  him  in  thought  and  spirit  while  he  prays. 
If  they  are  wool-gathering,  or  dreaming  of  their 
business,  or  wandering  here  and  there  in  their 
thoughts  during  the  prayer,  as  well  have  a  ma¬ 
chine  turn  out  the  prayers  as  a  man,  as  far  as  the 


LIVE  THE  PRAYERFUL  LIFE  169 


individual  is  concerned.  Yet  while  these  words 
of  Christ  do  not  teach  against  the  practice  of 
public  prayer,  it  does  seem  that  they  do  bear  the 
meaning  that  prayer  in  private  is  more  excellent, 
and  more  to  be  preferred  as  a  means  of  wor¬ 
shiping  God,  as  He  would  have  us,  than  is  public 
prayer.  That  man  who  practices  prayer  in  se¬ 
cret  is  safe  in  his  spiritual  life.  As  one  has  said, 
“  A  man  never  backslides  on  his  knees.”  At  all 
events,  our  Master  lays  the  emphasis  most 
strongly  on  the  thought  that  prayer  is  secret,  in¬ 
dividual,  spiritual  and  an  act  of  worship. 

Again,  says  our  Teacher,  in  your  prayer  be  not 
repetitious  but  in  earnest.  In  other  words,  he 
teaches  that  there  is  no  virtue  in  the  mere  saying 
over  of  prayers.  This  calls  a  positive  halt  to 
a  common  mistake  of  mankind.  There  is  an  ele¬ 
ment  of  superstition  in  every  man,  and  there  ever 
has  been  a  tendency  to  tie  the  worth  of  a  reli¬ 
gious  practice  to  the  form  of  that  practice.  In 
other  words,  men  are  continually  in  danger  of 
making  religion  external  and  formal.  Among  the 
Chinese  we  see  a  clear  illustration  of  this  failing 
of  mankind  right  in  point;  these  people,  feeling 
that  prayer  to  their  deity  is  good  and  that  much 
prayer  is  better,  have  constructed  ingenious  ma¬ 
chines  containing  rolls  on  which  are  written  prop¬ 
erly  worded  and  rightly  approved  prayers;  these 


1 7o  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

machines  are  placed  in  a  stream  of  running  water 
and  so  the  prayer  is  rolled  on  and  on  while  water 
runs.  It  is  beyond  explanation  strange  that  an 
intelligent  being  could  imagine  that  an  Intelligent 
Being  could  be  moved  or  praised  by  such  a  me¬ 
chanical  worship.  But  we  need  not  go  to  heathen 
countries  for  illustration  of  this  mistaken  view  of 
prayer;  right  in  our  own  midst  we  have  those 
who  “  think  that  they  shall  be  heard  for  their 
much  speaking,”  and  who  roll  out  11  Pater  Nos- 
ters  ”  and  “  Ave  Marias  ”  day  and  night,  with 
the  mechanical  regularity  and  the  unintelligent 
worship  of  a  Chinese  prayer-wheel.  It  is  against 
all  forms  of  mechanical  and  formal  worship  of 
God  that  Jesus  directs  these  words  on  prayer  — 
in  every  line  of  this  great  discourse  he  teaches  us 
that  the  worship  and  service  of  God  must  be  in 
spirit  and  in  truth;  that  the  spirit  of  the  worship 
is  of  the  first  importance  and  that  the  form  is 
everywhere  of  secondary  importance.  He  here 
plainly  says  that  there  is  a  distinction  to  be  made 
between  saying  one’s  prayers  and  praying. 

But  his  teaching  on  even  this  subject  is  spiritual 
and  in  principle  and  must  be  so  interpreted. 
There  is  no  vice  in  the  repetition  of  petition  and 
request  if  these  be  in  earnest  and  if  the  heart 
of  the  one  who  prays  wings  them  on  their  up¬ 
ward  way. 


LIVE  THE  PRAYERFUL  LIFE  17 1 


There  come  moments  in  the  life,  states  of  mind, 
crises  in  the  experience,  depths  of  helplessness  and 
need,  when  all  that  the  soul  can  do  is  to  cry  again 
and  again  the  call  for  help;  moments  when  the 
very  repetition  is  the  best  evidence  of  the  earnest¬ 
ness  of  the  one  who  prays.  Such  a  moment  came 
to  the  Master  himself  in  the  Garden  of  Geth- 
semane  when  three  times  and  in  the  identical 
words  he  prayed,  saying,  “  O  my  Father,  if  it  be 
possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me:  nevertheless 
not  as  I  will,  but  as  Thou  wilt.”  Such  a  prayer 
is  not  a  contradiction,  but  an  illustration  of  the 
deeper  meaning  of  Christ’s  teaching,  that  our 
prayers  must  not  be  repetitious  but  in  earnest. 

Again  our  Master  says,  in  substance,  let  not 
your  praying  be  superstitious  but  intelligent. 
True  prayer  is  not  a  mechanical  process  but  an 
intelligent  communion;  I  presume  that  prayer  in 
its  best  expression  is  the  most  perfect  manifesta¬ 
tion  of  which  the  human  intellect  is  capable.  Its 
acceptableness  and  efficacy  are  not  tied  to  place, 
form,  person  nor  material  thing  of  any  sort;  it 
is  the  most  spiritual  reality  with  which  mankind 
is  familiar.  While  this  is  true,  it  does  not  nega¬ 
tive  the  related  truth  that  periodic  and  frequent 
prayer  is  desirable,  for  one  may  come  to  his  knees 
periodically  with  a  hunger  and  thirst  after  God, 
as  one  comes  to  the  table  periodically  w'ith  a 


i72  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

hunger  and  thirst  after  material  aliment.  And 
in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  strength,  calm,  pa¬ 
tience,  power,  is  the  reward  of  the  true  and  peri¬ 
odic  coming.  And  yet  there  is  a  sense,  and  our 
experiences  have  made  us  familiar  with  it,  in 
which  stated,  periodic  prayer  may  foster  the 
superstitious  idea.  “  If  you  don’t  say  your  prayer 
at  night  something  will  happen  to  you,”  is  a  teach¬ 
ing,  akin  to  fetichism  rather  than  spirituality. 

Jesus  teaches  in  the  simple  and  beautiful  words 
of  the  eighth  verse  of  this  chapter  that  prayer  is 
the  intelligent  communion  between  the  Parent  and 
the  child.  In  most  simple  form  this  truth  reads 
—  God  knows  our  needs  before  we  know  them 
ourselves,  and  better  than  we  know  them  our¬ 
selves,  yet  He  likes  to  have  us  ask  Him  for  things 
we  need,  He  likes  to  have  His  children  talk  with 
Him  about  their  lives.  Was  there  ever  any 
truth  more  comforting  than  this,  more  uplifting, 
ennobling,  more  inspiring,  more  encouraging  a 
mortal  man  to  the  practice  of  frequent  prayer? 

What  is  more  gratifying  and  gladdening  to  the 
parent’s  heart  than  to  have  his  child  come  to 
him  at  the  close  of  the  day,  to  have  his  child  lay 
open  the  things,  the  secret  things  of  his  life,  to 
talk  it  all  over  writh  father  or  mother?  Does 
this  not  reveal  a  trust  in  the  parent,  a  confidence, 
a  love,  a  right  relation  of  the  life  and  the  heart 


LIVE  THE  PRAYERFUL  LIFE  173 

of  the  child  to  the  parent?  God  asks  for  just 
this  in  His  children,  and  no  more,  for  there  is 
nothing  higher  or  better  for  which  to  ask.  And 
what  can  be  more  helpful  to  the  child  than  to 
have  and  to  exercise  just  this  privilege  —  of  con¬ 
fession,  communion  and  conference  with  a  good 
parent?  After  such  a  meeting  the  child  goes 
away,  stronger,  happier,  brighter,  better,  and  love 
has  known  its  best  expression.  This  is  the  priv¬ 
ilege  and  this  is  the  blessing  which  the  child  of 
God  is  offered  in  prayer  —  the  right  to  talk  it 
over  with  his  heavenly  Father,  and  from  the  ex¬ 
ercise  of  such  a  divine  right  a  man  goes  away 
stronger,  happier,  brighter,  better,  and  love  has 
had  its  most  perfect  expression.  I  hold  it  to  be 
true  that  no  better  illustration  can  be  found  of 
God’s  close  and  tender  relations  to  His  children 
than  those  figures  of  our  Lord  wherein  he  likens 
the  heavenly  Father’s  relation  to  His  children  to 
the  right  relation  of  a  good  father  to  a  loving 
child.  And  how  often  Christ  uses  this  figure ! 

Thus,  in  these  opening  words,  our  Lord 
teaches  his  disciples  how  they  ought  to  pray  — 
and  having  taught  them  this  he  turns  to  the 
equally  important  subject  of  what  they  ought  to 
pray  for  —  in  this  they  are  likewise  in  need  of 
teaching.  It  is  not  our  purpose  here  to  give  a 
treatise  on  the  Lord’s  Prayer;  this  has  been  done 


174  THE  life  worth  living 

often  and  well  by  others;  we  would  simply  indi¬ 
cate  what  seems  to  us  to  be  the  main  import,  the 
underlying  purpose,  of  this  pattern  prayer  which 
the  Lord  taught  his  disciples.  First,  this  prayer 
contains  a  suggestion  as  to  the  form  of  prayer. 
We  observe  that  the  Lord’s  Prayer  is  simple  in 
its  spirit  and  diction;  direct  and  straightforward 
in  its  utterance,  free  from  all  fulsomeness,  void 
of  all  cant;  it  is  the  honest,  simple  utterance  of 
a  simple,  honest  soul.  We  remark  again  its 
brevity,  short  sentences,  thoughts  tersely  put,  a 
perfect  example  of  his  own  dictum;  be  not  repe¬ 
titious;  and  lastly  it  reveals  an  order  in  its  con¬ 
struction;  an  order  of  importance,  treating  first 
of  the  things  of  God  and  then  of  the  things  of 
man;  an  order  of  excellence  in  the  things  of  man, 
beginning  with  the  material  and  ascending  into 
the  spiritual;  and,  finally,  it  reaches  a  climax,  re¬ 
turning  in  the  perfect  circle  to  that  theme  with 
which  it  began,  “  for  thine  is  the  kingdom,  the 
power  and  the  glory  forever.  Amen.” 

We  have  termed  this  the  Pattern  Prayer,  and 
such  it  is  and  such  was  its  purpose.  Not  that 
this  is  the  only  prayer  which  his  disciples  are  to 
use;  the  spirit  of  true  prayer  is  free  and  it  must 
ever  be  left  to  the  individual  to  determine  his 
own  form  of  prayer,  if  prayer  is  to  be  what  it 
was  intended  to  be  —  the  free  expression  of  the 


LIVE  THE  PRAYERFUL  LIFE  175 

soul  of  the  individual.  But  Jesus  knew  our  need 
of  teaching  in  this  matter,  the  disciples  realized 
their  need  of  teaching  and  so  asked,  “  Lord, 
teach  us  to  pray  and  our  Teacher  implies  the 
purpose  of  this  prayer  in  the  words,  “  After  this 
manner  therefore  pray  ye.”  In  other  words,  the 
underlying  thought  of  this  Pattern  Prayer  is  not 
pray  for  those  things  that  ye  want,  but  learn  to 
pray  for  those  things  that  ye  ought  to  want;  and 
thus  shall  the  right  training  in  prayer  beget  the 
right  spirit  in  want. 

I  believe  we  may  truly  say  that  Jesus’  prayer  in 
Gethsemane  gives  evidence  of  this  blessed  result 
of  right  prayer,  for  in  the  very  act  of  praying 
his  spirit  and  desire  are  brought  perfectly  to  coin¬ 
cide  with  what  his  Father  wills  for  him. 

First  then  our  Pattern  Prayer  teaches  us  that 
we  are  to  pray  for  the  coming  of  God’s  kingdom, 
and  this  is  based  on  the  major  teaching  of  the 
religion  of  Christ,  “  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of 
God,”  etc.  Nor  is  a  man  to  be  unintelligent  and 
contradictory  in  this  petition;  let  him  not  pray 
for  it  unless  he  also  works  for  it.  It  is  an  ab¬ 
surdity  for  a  man  to  pray  for  what  he  does  not 
want.  “  Thy  kingdom  come  ”  is  not  a  pious  ut¬ 
terance  but  a  practical  petition.  Secondly,  we 
are  to  pray  for  our  physical  necessities.  This  pe¬ 
tition  bears  a  relation  to  the  former  petition,  but 


176  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

it  comes  in  the  second  place  and  is  of  secondary 
importance.  In  this  prayer  we  see  that  our  nat¬ 
ural  desire  is  warrantable,  our  natural  requests 
are  permissible.  Next,  we  are  to  make  known 
and  ask  help  in  our  moral  necessities;  that  is,  help 
that  we  may  fulfill  Christ’s  teachings  and  observe 
the  right  relation  to  our  brethren.  The  right  re¬ 
lation  to  them  is  included  in  the  meaning  of  love 
—  an  essential  expression  of  love  is  forgiveness. 
This  is  the  only  petition  in  this  prayer  to  which 
a  limitation  is  plainly  expressed;  this  limitation 
our  Lord  later  emphasizes  and  explains,  “  For  if 
ye  forgive  men  their  trespasses,  your  heavenly 
Father  will  also  forgive  you;  but  if  ye  forgive  not 
men  their  trespasses,  neither  will  your  Father  for¬ 
give  your  trespasses.”  This  clause  in  this  prayer 
one  needs  to  dwell  upon,  think  over;  in  a  meas¬ 
ure  the  answer  to  prayer  depends  upon  the  man 
himself.  Our  greatest  debt  to  God  is  our  debt 
to  our  fellows.  Then  we  are  to  pray  for  our 
spiritual  interests;  to  realize  our  absolute  depend¬ 
ence  upon  God;  to  trust  Him;  to  be  fully  aware 
that  because  His  is  the  kingdom,  His  the  power, 
and  His  the  glory  forever,  no  prayer  that  is  ever 
uttered  by  a  sincere  heart,  in  a  simple  way,  by  a 
child-like  spirit,  shall  ever  fail  of  an  adequate  and 
perfect  answer. 

The  hour  of  secret  prayer,  of  prayer  after  this 


LIVE  THE  PRAYERFUL  LIFE  177 


spirit  and  after  this  manner,  was  the  source  of 
the  power  and  glory  in  the  life  of  our  Lord;  the 
secret  which  opens  this  door  of  privilege,  power 
and  blessing,  our  Lord  communicates  to  his  disci¬ 
ples  and  to  us  in  these  heavenly  teachings  we 
have  just  considered. 


CHAPTER  XI 


LIVE  THE  SELF-DENYING  LIFE 
Matt,  vi,  1 6-1 8 

IT  is  not  improbable  that  fasting  arose  orig¬ 
inally  from  necessity.  In  primitive  civiliza¬ 
tion,  in  the  early  ages,  when  men  were  dependent 
for  their  sustenance  upon  the  free  products  of 
the  soil  or  on  the  precarious  fortunes  of  the  chase, 
the  occasions  would  not  infrequently  occur  when 
abstinence  was  a  necessity.  In  those  days,  when 
men  lived  near  to  nature’s  heart  and  the  inter¬ 
pretation  of  nature’s  ways  was  the  interpretation 
of  the  will  of  a  super-human  being,  it  is  not  un¬ 
natural  to  suppose  that  those  who  of  necessity 
must  fast  saw  in  it  something  of  a  will  above 
that  of  man.  So,  in  a  way,  the  fast  was  the  will 
of  the  gods. 

Add  to  this  the  fact  that  in  times  of  distress, 
sorrow,  agitation  or  anxiety  one’s  appetite  nat¬ 
urally  wanes  and  there  is  no  desire  for  food. 
This  was  the  frequent  experience  of  men.  By 
a  simple  and  natural  interchange  of  terms,  as 
when  one  was  in  humiliation  or  sorrow  he  fasted, 
so  when  he  fasted  it  was  an  evidence  of  sorrow 
and  contrition.  In  this  way  “  abstinence,  which 

178 


LIVE  THE  SELF-DENYING  LIFE  179 


seemed  imposed  by  Providence,  if  not  in  expiation 
of  guilt,  yet  as  an  accompaniment  of  sorrow,  eas¬ 
ily  became  regarded  as  a  religious  duty  when 
voluntarily  prolonged  or  assumed,  and  grew  to 
be  considered  as  an  efficacious  means  for  appeas¬ 
ing  the  divine  wrath,  and  restoring  prosperity  and 
peace.”  1  Now  when  such  a  fast  was  carried  on 
to  a  degree,  the  practitioner,  from  the  reduced 
vitality  consequent  upon  lack  of  sufficient  nour¬ 
ishment,  and  from  the  increased  nervous  suscep¬ 
tibility,  would  be  liable  to  visions,  hallucinations, 
vagaries  of  the  imagination.  These  would  be  in¬ 
terpreted  as  revelations  of  the  gods,  marks  of 
approval,  and  so  fasting  would  be  both  a  con¬ 
sequence  and  a  cause  of  these  divine  apparitions. 
In  some  such  way  as  this  fasting  came  to  be  as¬ 
sociated  with  religious  ceremony  and  worship. 
At  all  events,  whatever  the  origin,  from  the  earli¬ 
est  times  and  among  all  peoples,  fasting  has  been 
a  common  religious  practice. 

The  probability  is  that  it  was  practiced  among 
the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians.  Among  the 
Greeks  the  regulations  of  the  Orphic  societies,  as 
early  as  the  seventh  century  B.  c.,  “  demanded 
total  abstinence  from  meat  and  beans,  and  subse¬ 
quently  the  highest  rites  in  the  Eleusinian  mys- 

1  McClintock  and  Strong  and  New  International  Encyclopedia, 
in  loco. 


180  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


teries  were  preceded  by  a  day  of  fasting.” 2 

While  fasting  does  not  seem  to  have  been  com¬ 
mon  among  the  Egyptians,  yet  in  the  mysteries 
of  Isis  and  Osiris  it  was  practiced.  Among  the 
Romans  also  it  was  a  practice  at  their  festivals, 
and  in  later  times  before  initiation  into  their  se¬ 
cret  societies.  It  is  found  in  Persia  and  India 
—  it  is  a  rule  of  Brahmanism  and  Buddhism  — 
it  was  observed  among  the  Aztecs  and  Toltecs  of 
Mexico.  The  aborigines  of  America  followed 
the  custom,  and  the  Indians  of  the  West,  in  the 
ceremonies  of  the  Sun  Dance,  still  preserve  the 
custom.  The  Mohammedans  fast  and  the  Ro¬ 
man  Catholic  church  to-day  still  has  its  stated 
times  of  abstaining  from  food. 

It  is  to  this  religious  practice  which  has  been 
so  general  and  so  widely  accepted  that  Christ 
turns  our  attention  in  this  part  of  his  discourse. 

If  we  advert  to  the  history  of  the  Jews  we 
find  that  fasting  was  practiced  by  them  as  by  the 
other  nations.  In  the  earlier  times  of  the  nation, 
fasting  followed  the  natural  inclination,  was  spon¬ 
taneous  and  not  regulated  by  law.  Previous  to 
the  Exile,  the  only  fast  statedly  observed  seems 
to  have  been  that  of  the  Great  Day  of  the  Atone¬ 
ment.  But  after  the  exile,  when  there  came  that 
revival  of  the  ceremonies  of  religion  days  of  pub- 

2  International  Encyclopedia,  in  loco. 


LIVE  THE  SELF-DENYING  LIFE  181 


lie  fasting  were  inaugurated.  Then  there  were 
four  fasts  in  the  year,  in  the  fourth,  fifth,  sev¬ 
enth  and  tenth  months  —  each  of  these  com¬ 
memorating  some  sad  and  calamitous  event  in  the 
nation’s  history. 

The  Pharisees,  as  one  might  predict,  strict  fol¬ 
lowers  of  form,  excellers  in  outward  righteous¬ 
ness,  added  to  these  general  fasts  the  personal 
custom  of  fasting  twice  in  the  week,  on  Mondays 
and  Thursdays,  and  it  is  for  this  work  of  super¬ 
erogation  that  the  Pharisee  of  Christ’s  parable 
proudly  thanks  his  God. 

Jesus  dwelt  among  a  people  who  practiced  fast¬ 
ing,  and  here  and  in  one  other  place  in  the  Gos¬ 
pels  he  refers  to  the  practice.  It  is  interesting 
and  instructive  for  us  to  study  the  attitude  of  the 
Master  toward  this  matter. 

He  does  not  wholly  condemn  but  he  interprets 
and  regulates  the  practice.  Combine  this  pas¬ 
sage  in  Matt,  vi,  16-18  with  that  other  recorded 
in  Matt,  ix,  14-17,  and  those  passages  in  Mark 
and  Luke  parallel  to  this,  and  we  have  substan¬ 
tially  the  Master’s  teaching  on  the  subject  of 
fasting. 

From  the  question  of  John’s  disciples,  “Why 
do  John’s  disciples  and  the  disciples  of  the  Phar¬ 
isees  fast,  but  thy  disciples  fast  not?  ”  we  can 
readily  and  safely  infer  that  Jesus  himself  did 


1 82  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


not  fast,  as  a  form,  neither  did  he  teach  his  dis¬ 
ciples  so  to  do.  Nor  is  this  statement  inconsist¬ 
ent  with  the  references  to  Christ’s  fast  of  forty 
days,  and  his  utterance,  “  this  kind  goeth  not  out 
but  by  prayer  and  fasting  ” ;  these  but  bear  out 
and  verify  his  teachings  in  this  connection.  Jesus 
says  fasting  is  good  if  it  be  not  a  mere  form  but 
a  genuine  expression  of  the  heart  arid  life. 

Fasting  is  a  natural  expression  of  sorrow,  agi¬ 
tation  and  deep  emotion.  Thus  David  could  not 
eat  while  the  life  of  his  beloved  child  hung  in 
the  balance  (II  Sam.  xii,  1 6),  and  Paul  was  with¬ 
out  food  or  drink  three  days  after  the  stirring 
experience  of  his  sudden  conversion  (Acts  ix,  9), 
and  Christ  abstained  from  nourishment,  in  a 
measure  if  not  altogether,  at  the  time  of  his  great 
moral  and  spiritual  battle.  At  the  same  time 
Jesus  condemns  the  mechanical,  superstitious 
practice  of  the  fast  as  a  form. 

God  is  not  pleased  with  form  as  form.  His 
religion  is  not  mechanical  and  external  but  of  the 
heart.  This  is  the  underlying  spirit  of  this  sixth 
chapter  up  to  the  eighteenth  verse.  Your  right¬ 
eousness  is  not  to  be  in  the  sight  of  men,  not  for¬ 
mal,  but  real.  How  inconsistent,  says  he,  it 
would  be  for  his  disciples  to  fast,  while  they  still 
have  the  bridegroom  with  them.  The  Gospel  of 
Jesus  was  the  Gospel  of  gladness,  while  the  re- 


LIVE  THE  SELF-DENYING  LIFE  183 


ligion  of  John  was  the  gospel  of  gloom.  John 
was  the  prophet  of  the  night;  the  night,  if  you 
will,  which  sloped  toward  the  morning,  but  none 
the  less  of  the  night.  Christ  was  the  prophet  of 
the  light.  The  day  had  come  with  him. 

We  see  further  how  the  teaching  and  prophecy 
of  Jesus  were  later  fulfilled  on  that  night  when 
they  scattered,  as  sheep  without  a  shepherd  — 
during  those  three  days  when  they  felt  that  their 
leader  and  head  had  been  removed,  we  may  rest 
assured  that  they  fasted  and  that  their  fast  was 
genuine.  But  after  this  the  shepherd  came  back 
to  his  sheep;  the  Master  returned  to  his  disci¬ 
ples  —  and  the  cause  for  fasting  as  a  religious 
practice  was  forever  removed. 

Then  Jesus  proceeds  to  give  his  questioners  a 
reason  why  formal  fasting  may  be  abated.  The 
cloth  of  gladness  will  not  fit  into  the  garment  of 
gloom,  the  spirit  of  rejoicing  would  burst  the  old 
wine  skins  of  sadness.  The  teaching  that  Jesus 
here  gives  finds  its  echo  in  the  words  of  Paul  in 
his  letters  to  the  Philippians,  “  Rejoice  in  the  Lord 
alway:  and  again  I  say  rejoice.’’ 3  In  other 
words,  Christ  in  these  passages  acknowledges  the 
principle  of  fasting,  which  principle  we  shall  con¬ 
sider  later,  but  condemns  its  present  practice. 

Jesus  condemns  this  practice  because  of  the 

3  Philip,  iv,  4. 


1 84  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

false  idea  of  God  that  it  contained:  the  idea  that 
affliction  and  disfiguring  of  the  body,  in  itself,  was 
pleasing  to  the  Almighty.  The  idea  that  me¬ 
chanical  methods  could  purchase  favor  with  God. 
Such  an  idea  rests  on  a  false  premise  —  to  wit, 
that  God  is  our  enemy,  our  ill-wisher,  that  He 
finds  pleasure  in  our  affliction  and  discomfort, 
that  He  is  jealous  of  human  pleasure  and  human 
happiness.  This  is  a  heathen  idea,  and  finds  il¬ 
lustration  among  the  heathen  nations,  even  the 
most  enlightened  of  them.  How  prominent 
among  the  Greeks,  with  their  knowledge  and  cul¬ 
ture,  how  evident  in  their  dramas  and  mytholo¬ 
gies,  is  the  idea  that  the  gods  are  jealous,  envious, 
bitter  toward  men.  The  gods  of  those  times 
could  not  bear  to  see  their  subjects  too  prosper¬ 
ous,  successful  or  happy.  What  scheming  in  the 
circles  of  Olympus  to  defeat  the  plans  and  darken 
the  life  of  some  poor  human,  who  was  a  favorite 
of  one  of  the  gods  and  hence  an  enemy  of  all  the 
others!  Nor  did  this  idea  which  seems  to  grow 
native  among  the  heathen  nations,  find  abatement 
in  later  times  among  those  peoples  who  had  been 
taught  in  the  religion  of  Christ. 

The  history  of  the  church  is  filled  with  illus¬ 
tration  of  belief  in  this  fact  —  that  God  grudges 
happiness  to  man  and  is  placated  and  pleased  with 
the  life  of  misery.  This  section  of  the  moral 


LIVE  THE  SELF-DENYING  LIFE  185 


and  religious  history  of  mankind  affords  most  fas¬ 
cinating,  while  most  depressing,  reading.  At  all 
events,  read  W.  H.  Lecky’s  “  History  of  Euro¬ 
pean  Morals  ”  and  we  find  ample  evidence  of  the 
prevalence  of  this  unchristian  belief.  I  quote  at 
length  from  Mr.  Lecky’s  second  volume. 
“  There  is,  perhaps,  no  phase  in  the  moral  his¬ 
tory  of  mankind  of  deeper  or  more  painful  in¬ 
terest  than  this  ascetic  epidemic.  A  hideous,  sor¬ 
did  and  emaciated  maniac,  without  knowledge, 
without  patriotism,  without  natural  affection,  pass¬ 
ing  his  life  in  a  long  routine  of  useless  and 
atrocious  self-torture,  and  quailing  before  the 
ghastly  phantoms  of  his  delirious  brain,  had  be¬ 
come  the  ideal  of  the  nations  which  had  known 
the  writings  of  Plato  and  Cicero  and  the  lives  of 
Socrates  and  Cato.”  4  “  For  about  two  centuries 

the  hideous  maceration  of  the  body  was  regarded 
as  the  highest  proof  of  excellence.”  Men  went 
without  food,  without  sleep,  without  washing, 
without  comfort  —  enduring  sufferings,  priva¬ 
tions,  flagellations,  macerations,  not  because  they 
were  necessary  or  required  by  the  circumstances 
of  a  life  of  service,  but  for  mere  form’s  sake  — 
and  to  win  favor  with  a  God  who  delighted  in 
the  misery  of  his  creatures. 

4  Fid.  here  et  seq.,  W.  H.  Lecky’s  “  History  of  European 
Morals,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  100-140,  edition  1879. 


1 86  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


There  is  the  record  of  one  monk,  “  who  for 
thirty  years  had  lived  exclusively  on  a  small  por¬ 
tion  of  barley  bread  and  of  muddy  water,  and  of 
another,  who  lived  in  a  hole  and  never  ate  more 
than  five  figs  for  his  daily  repast.” 

There  was  a  famous  saint,  named  John,  of 
whom  it  is  asserted  “  that  for  three  whole  years 
he  stood  in  prayer,  leaning  upon  a  rock;  that  dur¬ 
ing  all  that  time  he  never  sat  down,  and  that  his 
only  nourishment  was  the  sacrament  which  was 
brought  him  on  Sundays.”  While  there  were  lit¬ 
erally  multitudes  who  practiced  these  hideous 
rites,  the  palm  of  excellence  must,  without  doubt, 
be  yielded  to  St.  Simeon  Stylites,  who  exceeded 
all  his  brethren  in  the  severity  of  his  life.  Of 
him  Mr.  Lecky  writes:  “  It  would  be  difficult  to 
conceive  of  a  more  horrible  or  disgusting  picture 
than  is  given  of  the  penances  by  which  that  saint 
commenced  his  ascetic  career.  He  had  bound  a 
rope  around  him  so  that  it  became  imbedded  in 
his  flesh,  which  putrified  around  it.  A  horrible 
stench,  intolerable  to  the  bystanders,  exhaled 
from  his  body,  and  worms  dropped  from  him 
whenever  he  moved,  and  they  filled  his  bed !  He 
built  successively  three  pillars,  the  last  being  sixty 
feet  high  and  scarcely  two  cubits  in  circumference, 
and  on  this  pillar,  during  thirty  years,  he  re¬ 
mained  exposed  to  every  change  of  climate, 


LIVE  THE  SELF-DENYING  LIFE  187 


ceaselessly  and  rapidly  bending  his  body  in  prayer 
almost  to  the  level  of  his  feet.”  “  For  a  whole 
year  we  are  told  St.  Simeon  stood  upon  one  leg, 
the  other  being  covered  with  hideous  ulcers,  while 
his  biographer  was  commissioned  to  stand  by  his 
side,  to  pick  up  the  worms  that  fell  from  his 
body,  and  to  replace  them  in  the  sores,  the  saint 
saying  to  the  worm,  ‘  Eat  what  God  has  given 
you.’  ”  He  it  was  whom  “  the  general  voice  of 
mankind  pronounced  to  be  the  highest  model  of 
a  Christian  saint;  and  several  other  anchorites 
imitated  or  emulated  his  penances.” 

Another  strange  manifestation  of  this  princi¬ 
ple  of  formal  fasting  is  evidenced  in  the  insane 
desire  to  destroy  that  which  is  naturally  attrac¬ 
tive  or  beautiful.  “  The  cleanliness  of  the  body 
was  regarded  as  a  pollution  of  the  soul,  and  the 
saints  who  were  most  admired  had  become  one 
mass  of  clotted  filth.”  “  St.  Abraham  the  her¬ 
mit,  who  lived  for  fifty  years  after  his  conversion, 
rigidly  refused  from  that  date  to  wash  either  his 
face  or  his  feet.”  “  He  was,  it  is  said,  a  person 
of  singular  beauty,  and  his  biographer  somewhat 
strangely  remarks  that  ‘  his  face  reflected  the  pur¬ 
ity  of  his  soul.’  ”  u  A  famous  virgin  named  Sil¬ 
via,  though  she  was  sixty  years  old  and  though 
bodily  sickness  was  a  consequence  of  her  habits, 
resolutely  refused  on  religious  principles  to  wash 


1 88  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


any  part  of  her  body  except  her  fingers.” 

The  hideous  and  grotesque  painting  of  the  face 
and  body,  by  the  African  and  Indian  savage  in 
his  religious  ceremony  is  a  further  illustration  of 
this  disfigurement  and  destruction  of  the  naturally 
beautiful.  Nor  have  there  been  wanting,  in  any 
age  of  the  history  of  the  church,  among  circles 
most  highly  educated  and  cultured,  individuals 
and  groups  who  have  shown  this  same  desire  to 
abhor  and  condemn  that  which  is  beautiful.  Ever 
have  there  been  those  who  have  protested  that 
all  adornment  of  the  person,  all  grace  of  dress 
and  outward  appearance  was  a  sin  against  God, 
and  to  be  utterly  condemned.  We  can  only  stand 
and  marvel  at  the  darkness  of  superstition  and 
the  deceivableness  of  sin  in  the  hearts  of  those 
people  who  while  living  in  a  world,  which  God 
has  clothed  with  beauty  and  adorned  in  every  part 
with  a  glory  which  is  but  a  faint  reflection  of  His 
own  nature,  yet  thought  that  hideousness  and 
ugliness,  must  be  acceptable  unto  Him. 

Still  one  other  fruit,  the  product  of  this  bane¬ 
ful  principle,  that  God  loves  to  see  His  children 
miserable  and  takes  delight  in  human  unhappi¬ 
ness,  is  found  in  another  form  of  fasting  —  the 
annihilation  of  all  that  gives  pleasure  and  all  that 
delights  the  senses  or  comforts  the  life  of  man. 
“  The  hermit’s  cell  was  the  scene  of  perpetual 


LIVE  THE  SELF-DENYING  LIFE  189 


mourning.”  “  The  duty,”  said  St.  Jerome,  “  of 
a  monk  is  not  to  teach  but  to  weep.”  If  the  nat¬ 
ural  rigors  and  privations  of  the  hermit’s  life  were 
not  enough  to  distress  and  harrow  his  flesh,  he 
must  needs  resort  to  flagellations  and  penances, 
until  his  ideal  bodily  misery  was  accomplished. 
To  be  comfortable  was  to  be  irreligious,  to  be 
miserable  was  to  please  God. 

One  particular  form  of  robbing  the  life  of  its 
gladness  and  joy  was  the  severing  of  those  nat¬ 
ural  ties  and  the  destruction  of  those  natural  af¬ 
fections  implanted  by  God.  “  A  man  named 
Mutius,  accompanied  by  his  only  child,  a  little 
boy  eight  years  old,  abandoned  his  possessions 
and  demanded  admission  into  a  monastery.  The 
monks  received  him  but  they  proceeded  to  disci¬ 
pline  his  heart.”  “  He  had  already  forgotten 
that  he  was  rich,  he  must  next  be  taught  to  forget 
that  he  was  a  father.”  “  His  little  child  was  sep¬ 
arated  from  him,  clothed  in  dirty  rags,  subject 
to  every  form  of  gross  and  wanton  hardship, 
beaten,  spurned,  and  ill  treated.”  All  this  the 
father  had  to  behold  and  at  last,  as  the  crucial 
test,  “  the  abbot  told  him  to  take  his  child  and 
to  throw  it  into  the  river.  He  proceeded  with¬ 
out  a  murmur  or  apparent  pang,  to  obey,  and  it 
was  only  at  the  last  moment  that  the  monks  in¬ 
terposed,  and  on  the  very  brink  of  the  river  saved 


1 9o  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

the  child.”  5  Instances  of  a  similar  sort  might  be 
multiplied,  but  enough  to  say  that  fathers  left 
their  children  and  families,  children  left  their 
aged  and  dependent  parents.  And  in  this  grue¬ 
some  category  we  have  ample  illustration  of  what 
Paul  said  of  those  last  days,  when  men  should 
be  lovers  of  their  own  selves,  for  this  entire  prac¬ 
tice  was  but  sublimated  selfishness,  and  a  man’s 
whole  aim  to  save  his  own  soul,  “  boasters,  proud, 
disobedient  to  parents,  unholy,  and  without  nat¬ 
ural  affection.”  6  How  strange  it  is  that  men  did 
and  men  do  attribute  to  the  good  God,  “  a  char¬ 
acter  that  would  disgrace  a  Hottentot.” 

How  this  inhuman,  unnatural  practice  of  men 
contrasts  with  the  Master’s  teaching  concerning 
our  heavenly  Father.  God  is  our  well-wisher, 
our  friend,  our  Father,  and  not  our  enemy.  This 
is  the  teaching  of  reason,  of  Scripture,  and  of 
Christ.  The  suffering  of  our  body,  the  distresses 
of  our  lives,  are  a  matter  of  His  deep  concern. 
Lovingly  did  Jesus  say,  “  I  am  come  that  they 
might  have  life  and  have  it  more  abundantly  ” — 
more  abundantly  in  body,  mind  and  estate.  And 
the  following  of  his  simple,  beautiful  teachings 

5  For  a  study  of  asceticism,  in  more  modern  instances — and  from 
the  standpoint  of  a  psychologist,  <vid.  “  Varieties  of  Religious  Ex¬ 
periences/’  by  Wm.  James,  pp.  296-325,  Longmans,  Green  &  Co., 
1906. 

6  II  Tim.  iii,  2. 


LIVE  THE  SELF-DENYING  LIFE  19 1 


will  produce  these  desired  results.  Clearly  is  it 
written,  “  Know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  the 
temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit  —  therefore  glorify 
God  in  your  body.”  7  Again,  “  If  any  man  de¬ 
stroy  the  temple  of  God,  him  shall  God  destroy.”  8 
How  could  men  ever  have  dreamed  that  the  abuse 
of  the  body,  which  He  gave  them,  could  be 
pleasing  or  acceptable  to  Him?  Or  that  the 
Giver  of  every  good  gift  and  of  every  perfect 
giving  could  be  envious  of  men’s  enjoyment  and 
use  of  life’s  goods? 

How  clearly  did  Jesus  perceive  and  condemn 
the  evil  of  this  formal  fasting  —  when  men 
should  become  hypocrites,  mummers,  play-actors, 
for  this  is  the  meaning  of  the  Greek  word,  proud 
and  boastful  of  their  formal  righteousness.  “  Be 
not  as  these,”  said  the  Master;  “  hypocrites,  of  a 
sad  countenance:  for  they  disfigure  their  faces, 
that  they  may  be  seen  of  men  to  fast.”  “  They 
have  their  reward.”  They  are  seen,  recorded 
and  pitied  for  their  ignorance,  or  condemned  for 
their  superstition. 

Yet  while  Jesus  condemned  the  present  prac¬ 
tice  of  fasting,  we  believe  it  is  likewise  true  that 
he  commended  the  underlying  principle  of  fast¬ 
ing.  “  When  ye  fast,”  implies  that  men  are  to- 

7  I  Cor.  vi,  19-20. 

8  I  Cor.  in,  17. 


1 92  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

day  to  have  that  principle  in  their  service  and 
worship  which  underlies  the  fast,  and  which  con¬ 
stitutes  its  true  worth,  the  principle  of  self-de¬ 
nial.  This  principle  of  unselfishness,  and  self- 
denial  underlies  the  observance  of  all  true  reli¬ 
gion.  It  is  a  principle  that  has  been  recognized 
by  the  spiritual-minded  in  every  age  of  the 
world’s  history.  Nowhere  does  it  find  stronger 
endorsement  nor  clearer  exposition  than  in  the 
fifty-eighth  chapter  of  Isaiah.  In  that  passage,9 
as  in  these  words  of  Jesus,  the  affliction  of  the 
soul,  the  disfigurement  of  the  body,  the  external 
observances  of  contrition  and  humiliation,  how¬ 
ever  studied  or  artistic,  are  condemned  as  not  ac¬ 
ceptable  unto  the  Lord.  In  short,  these  are  not 
to  be  called  a  fast  at  all.  But  if  the  servant  of 
God  would  have  a  fast  that  is  pleasing  and  ac¬ 
ceptable  to  God,  let  him  loose  the  bands  of  wick¬ 
edness,  remove  the  burden  from  the  over-loaded, 
feed  the  hungry,  house  the  poor,  cover  the  naked, 
be  a  brother  to  those  who  are  related  to  you  by 
the  ties  of  blood  and  to  those  who  are  related 
to  you  by  the  bonds  of  a  common  humanity.  This 
will  call  for  all  the  self-denial  and  all  the  self- 
sacrifice  of  which  you  are  capable,  and  this  will 
meet  with  the  approval  and  blessing  of  God,  for 
then  “  shall  thy  righteousness  go  before  thee  and 

9  Isa.  lviii,  5-8. 


LIVE  THE  SELF-DENYING  LIFE  193 

the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  be  thy  reward.” 
Such  a  principle  of  fasting  has  been  needed  and 
of  service  in  every  age  of  the  race’s  history,  and 
is  needed  to-day  as  much  as  ever  it  was. 

The  principle  of  fasting,  then,  stated  in  its  larg¬ 
est  form,  which  Christ  here  inculcates,  is  this,  that 
wherever  the  lower  in  life  is  made  subservient 
to  the  higher,  there  is  the  true  idea  of  fasting. 
This  was  the  principle  that  actuated  Daniel  and 
the  three  Israelitish  children  in  their  living  in 
Babylon;  this  was  the  principle  that  actuated 
Abraham  to  give  up  the  pasture  plains  and  the 
wells  of  water  to  the  more  selfish  Lot;  this  was 
the  ideal  which  strengthened  the  Apostle  Paul  to 
fight  and  keep  his  body  under  and  made  him  the 
great  apostle  of  sacrificing  service,  that  he  might 
be  of  use  to  his  brethren. 

Says  Jesus,  “  Let  a  man  deny  himself  ”  that 
self  which  is  so  obtrusive,  which  so  tends  to  as¬ 
sert  its  claims,  which  is  so  willing  to  eat  all  the 
fat  and  drink  all  the  sweet,  while  the  brother  is 
in  want. 

This  is  the  principle  which  applies  to  a  man’s 
time  —  that  gift  of  God,  which  while  given  in 
abundance  is  yet  given  in  limitation.  This  is  the 
principle  which  says  to  the  naturally  selfish  man, 
and  yet  to  the  right-minded  man:  Some  of  your 
time  belongs  to  God,  and  must  be  dedicated  to 


194 


THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


Him  in  the  service  of  the  church,  the  prayer¬ 
meeting,  and  the  culture  of  the  soul,  that  the  rest 
of  your  time  may  be  rightly  used.  This  is  the 
principle  which  teaches  the  man  that  of  life’s 
“  goods  ” —  some  are  to  be  given  to  the  service 
of  his  fellows  and  to  the  advancement  of  the  king¬ 
dom.  This  is  the  principle  which  lays  its  just 
tax  on  a  man’s  powers  and  talents,  place  and  pos¬ 
session,  that  the  brother  may  be  helped,  his  own 
life  enriched  and  his  God  glorified. 

And  further,  says  Jesus,  “  Let  the  one  who 
lives  according  to  this  divine  principle  of  self- 
denial,  see  that  he  exercises  it  in  the  right  spirit.” 
Not  unwillingly  nor  grudgingly,  not  with  a  sad 
countenance  and  a  disfigured  face,  as  though  he 
were  doing  an  unwelcome  thing,  but  with  an  an¬ 
ointed  head  and  a  face  that  is  washed  and  beauti¬ 
fied  with  a  smile.  Let  him  not  exercise  this  serv¬ 
ice  in  a  fearful  and  superstitious  manner,  because 
of  the  wrath  of  God,  but  in  an  intelligent,  ap¬ 
preciative,  happy,  spiritual,  “  in  secret  ”  way,  be¬ 
cause  of  the  love  of  God.  Then  comes  that 
promise,  containing  the  incentive  and  the  reward 
of  practicing  such  a  righteousness,  that  promise 
sealed  by  the  very  character  of  God  and  set,  I 
am  sure,  in  a  smile  on  the  Savior’s  face  as  he 
spake  it,  “  Thy  Father  shall  see,  and  thy  Father 
shall  reward  thee.”  “  Then  shall  thy  light  break 


LIVE  THE  SELF-DENYING  LIFE  195 

forth  as  the  morning,  and  thine  health  shall  spring 
forth  speedily.”  “  And  the  Lord  shall  guide  thee 
continually  and  satisfy  thy  soul  in  drought,  and 
make  fat  thy  bones:  and  thou  shalt  be  like  a 
watered  garden,  and  like  a  spring  of  water,  whose 
waters  fail  not.”  10 


10  Isa.  lviii,  8  and  n. 


CHAPTER  XII 


LIVE  FREE  FROM  THE  BONDAGE  OF  GOLD 

Matt,  vi,  19-21 

THE  Divine  Physician  has  thus  far  been  con¬ 
sidering  the  heavenly  hygiene:  he  has  been 
speaking  of  the  soul  in  health,  and  laying  down 
those  rules  of  life  which  make  for  well-being  — 
that  state  of  life  termed  blessedness,  to  which  he 
calls  our  attention  in  his  opening  words.  Now  he 
turns  from  this  theme,  with  logical  sequence,  to 
an  exhibition  of  those  things  which  threaten  the 
spiritual  well  being,  and  imperil  the  health  of  the 
“  man  within  and  first  he  calls  attention  to  that 
disease  of  mankind,  that  destruction  of  blessed¬ 
ness,  which  arises  from  an  inordinate  love  of 
gold,  the  source  of  so  many  of  life’s  ills,  from 
the  earliest  days.  The  whole  business  of  life 
could  not  be  better  described  than  in  the  figure 
of  the  text  which  our  Instructor  here  uses  — 
treasure  hunting.  Hunting  and  laying  up  treas¬ 
ure  is  what  men  do,  what  they  want  t;o  do,  and 
what  they  ought  to  do.  This  is  one  great  busi¬ 
ness  of  life. 

It  is  instinctive  in  mankind  to  lay  up  treasure. 

196 


FREE  FROM  BONDAGE  OF  GOLD  197 


To-day  psychology  is  turning  its  observant  eye 
to  the  more  careful  study  of  the  mind  in  its  early 
stages;  it  is  making  a  profitable  study  of  child 
life.  If  in  this  instance  we  turn  our  thought  to 
the  child  life,  what  do  we  find?  Sometime,  when 
the  opportunity  is  favorable,  ask  your  young  son 
of  eight  to  twelve  years  of  age,  to  show  you  the 
treasures  of  his  pocket,  and  what  are  you  sure 
to  find?  Tops  and  strings  and  screws  and  things 

—  and  every  conceivable  article.  I  know  on  one 
such  occasion,  among  other  valuable  treasures, 
the  body  of  a  dead  mouse  was  produced  as  worth 
preserving  (I  use  the  term  advisedly).  Go  into 
a  young  lad’s  room  and  what  do  you  find?  —  a 
veritable  storehouse  of  treasures  —  here  a  collec¬ 
tion  of  birds’  eggs,  there  a  gathering  of  stones  — 
yonder  the  stamp  album,  etc.,  etc.  Professor 
James  tells  us  in  his  Psychology  that  out  of  a 
hundred  students  whom  he  had  questioned  only 
four  or  five  had  never  collected  anything,  and 
Professor  G.  S.  Hall  says  that  in  a  similar  inves¬ 
tigation  “  only  nineteen  out  of  two  hundred  and 
twenty-nine  had  made  no  collections.”  If  we  are 
to  trust  to  the  testimony  of  impartial  witnesses 

—  treasure  hunting  and  treasure  storing  is  nat¬ 
ural  to  the  human  species.  This  quality  in  man 
is  instinctive  and  is  also  found  among  the  animals 
of  a  lower  order  —  as  witness  the  propensities 


1 98  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

of  the  raven,  the  jack-daw,  the  wood-rat,  which 
lay  up  treasures,  not  for  food  or  use,  but  simply 
because  of  natural  instinct. 

Moreover,  this  is  an  occupation  that  is  most 
congenial  to  men;  listen  to  the  conversation  of 
the  average  man  with  his  fellows  on  street  car 
or  train  and  is  not  the  burden  of  it,  “  To-day  or 
to-morrow  we  will  go  into  such  a  city,  and  con¬ 
tinue  there  a  year,  and  buy  and  sell,  and  get 
gain”?  Yes,  these  are  the  things  which  interest, 
occupy,  absorb  and  satisfy  the  lives  of  most  of 
mankind. 

Moreover,  to  hunt  treasure  is  what  men  ought 
to  do;  this  is  a  natural,  sensible,  wise  and  highly 
moral  obligation.  We  are  in  this  world  for  a 
purpose  —  for  this  purpose ;  inactivity  is  not 
right,  idleness  is  immoral.  The  underlying 
teaching  of  “  take  the  talent  from  him  and  give 
it  to  him  that  hath  ten  ”  is  that  only  he  who  uses 
and  increases  what  he  has,  really  possesses  any¬ 
thing  or  is  truly  fulfilling  his  work  in  life.  We 
ought  to  grow  richer  as  we  live,  if  life  has  any 
meaning  at  all. 

“  Oh!  ”  says  the  listener,  “  we  are  so  glad  to 
hear  it;  then  humanity  is  all  right,  for  as  I  go 
about  the  earth  and  observe  men,  I  find  that  this 
is  just  what  they  are  doing.” 

“Hold!  not  so  fast.  Suppose  you  should  see 


FREE  FROM  BONDAGE  OF  GOLD  199 


grown  men  making  the  business  of  life  the  gath¬ 
ering  up  of  birds’  eggs,  of  piles  of  stones,  of  old 
rubbish,  that  surely  would  not  be  the  purpose  of 
life?”  And  this  is  just  what  men  have  done 
and  are  doing,  literally;  for  this  instinct  of  ac¬ 
quisitiveness  has  strange  illustration.  Again,  re¬ 
verting  for  illustration  to  Professor  James,  he 
writes,  “  Lately  in  a  Massachusetts  town  there 
died  a  miser  who  principally  hoarded  newspapers. 
/These  had  ended  by  so  filling  the  rooms  of  his 
good-sized  house  from  floor  to  ceiling  that  his 
living-space  was  restricted  to  a  few  narrow  chan¬ 
nels  between  them.”  And  of  another  instance  he 
records,  “  He  gathered  old  newspapers,  wrap¬ 
ping-paper,  incapacitated  umbrellas,  canes,  pieces 
of  common  wire,  cast-off  clothing,  empty  barrels, 
pieces  of  iron,  battered  tinware,  fractured  pots 
and  bushels  of  such  miscellany  as  is  to  be  found 
only  at  the  city  dump.”  There  was  the  instinct, 
the  activity,  the  work,  but  behold  the  treasure ! 
The  trouble  is  not  with  the  instinct,  nor  the  am¬ 
bition,  nor  the  desire  —  but  with  the  treasure. 
The  instinct  was  right,  the  desire  was  right  —  the 
activity  was  right  —  but  its  direction  and  expres¬ 
sion  that  were  wrong. 

Now  Jesus  classes  the  collecting  of  gold  —  the 
treasure-hunting  and  treasure-storing  of  goods 
and  wealth,  among  the  rubbish  heap  of  life’s  good 


200  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


things,  and  therefore  he  here  warns  men  to  live 
free  from  the  bondage  of  this  habit.  And  is  it 
not  true  to-day,  that  most  men’s  lives  are  in  slav¬ 
ery  to  the  getting  of  gold?  Is  not  this  the  spirit 
of  our  age?  Professor  James  in  his  “Varieties 
of  Religious  Experience,”  in  recognizing  the 
worth  of  certain  ascetic  practices,  among  others 
praises  the  practice  of  poverty.  Says  he, 
“  Among  us  English-speaking  peoples  especially 
do  the  praises  of  poverty  need  once  more  to  be 
boldly  sung.  We  have  grown  literally  afraid  to 
be  poor.  .  .  .  The  desire  to  gain  wealth  and  the 
fear  to  lose  it  are  our  chief  breeders  of  cowardice 
and  propagators  of  corruption.  .  .  .  There  are 
thousands  of  conjunctures  in  which  a  wealthbound 
man  must  be  a  slave,  whilst  a  man  for  whom 
poverty  has  no  terrors  becomes  a  freeman.  .  .  . 
When  we  of  the  so-called  better  classes  are  scared 
as  men  were  never  scared  in  history  at  material 
ugliness  and  hardship;  when  we  put  off  marriage 
until  our  house  can  be  artistic,  and  quake  at  the 
thought  of  having  a  child  without  a  bank  account 
and  doomed  to  manual  labor,  it  is  time  for  think¬ 
ing  men  to  protest  against  so  unmanly  and  irre¬ 
ligious  a  state  of  opinion.  ...  I  recommend  this 
matter  to  your  serious  pondering,  for  it  is  certain 
that  the  prevalent  fear  of  poverty  among  the  edu¬ 
cated  classes  is  the  worst  moral  disease  from 


FREE  FROM  BONDAGE  OF  GOLD  201 


which  our  civilization  suffers.” 

To  what  extremes  of  moral  iniquity  and  moral 
indifference  will  not  men  go  in  the  fulfillment  of 
this  inordinate  desire  for  wealth;  food  which  is 
meant  for  the  nourishment  of  the  body  will  be 
adulterated  with  substances  which  starve  and 
poison  —  drugs  intended  for  the  healing  of  the 
sick  are  adulterated  with  chemicals  which  hinder 
if  they  do  not  help  such  an  end. 

“  I  must  be  rich,”  expresses  the  purpose  of  too 
many  men.  “  Thou  must  be  rich,”  is  the  burden 
of  too  much  of  our  teaching  to  our  children. 

What  have  not  men  done,  what  have  they  not 
endured,  through  the  love  of  gold?  It  was  the 
search  for  the  treasure  of  the  Indies  that  sent 
Columbus  sailing  westward,  over  the  perilous  At¬ 
lantic  Ocean.  It  was  the  love  of  gold  that  in¬ 
spired  Pizzaro  to  invade  Peru;  it  was  this  same 
object  that  led  Cortez  to  conquer  Mexico,  to  the 
curse  of  its  inhabitants,  himself  and  his  fol¬ 
lowers.  The  bones  of  the  Forty-niners  dotted 
the  plains  of  the  West  they  must  cross  in  seeking 
the  gold-fields  of  California  in  quest  of  gold. 
And  the  sacrifices,  the  sufferings  and  the  perils 
which  the  Klondikers  endured  in  their  hunt  for 
the  yellow  treasure  are  still  fresh  in  our  minds. 
There  is  no  peril  too  great,  no  command  too 
severe,  no  undertaking  too  hazardous,  for  that 


202  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


man  who  has  been  really  seized  by  the  lust  of 
gold.  The  desire  for  riches  is  inordinate,  the  de¬ 
mand  for  wealth  is  insatiable,  the  means  by  which 
it  is  gotten  is  immaterial  in  far  too  many  in¬ 
stances.  What  will  not  a  man  give  up?  what 
will  he  not  cheerfully  sacrifice,  in  obedience  to  this 
inordinate  desire? 

It  is  not  in  this  passage  alone,  but  in  other 
places  also  in  the  Gospel  record  that  Jesus  refers 
to  this  madness  of  mankind,  to  those  who  sacri¬ 
fice  the  better,  the  higher,  the  truer  treasures  of 
life  —  for  the  sake  of  their  gold.  How  he  char¬ 
acterizes  and  classifies  the  unwisdom  of  such  in 
the  parable  of  “  the  Rich  Fool  ” !  Him  whom 
men  call  only  “  a  certain  rich  man,”  God  calls, 
“  Thou  fool.” 

I  must  tell  you  the  story  of  a  poor  fool  I  once 
saw,  perhaps  you  have  seen  him  too.  I  recol¬ 
lect  the  first  time  I  saw  him  he  was  sitting  on  the 
floor  in  the  corner  of  a  great  room  playing  as 
would  a  child.  I  remember  as  I  approached  the 
pitiable  creature  I  was  struck  by  his  appearance; 
his  face  had  a  vacant,  animal  look,  his  eyes  were 
jaundiced  and  yellow,  and  his  coarse  lips  slob¬ 
bered  and  slavered  as  he  played.  Then  my  eye 
lighted  on  the  playthings  that  were  engaging  his 
attention;  these  were  bright  pieces  of  metal,  yel¬ 
low  disks  that  had  a  clink  and  glint  to  them,  and 


FREE  FROM  BONDAGE  OF  GOLD  203 


looked  to  me  like  coins.  These  he  allowed  to  run 
through  his  fingers  in  a  golden  stream;  he  put 
them  into  his  eyes  and  ears  and  stuffed  them  into 
his  mouth;  and  then  he  would  roll  in  the  shining 
heap,  seemingly  desirous  of  enveloping  himself 
in  them,  as  you  have  seen  a  cat  behave  with  its 
loved  catnip.  The  case  seemed  all  the  sadder  to 
me  by  contrast;  because  in  another  corner  of  this 
great  room  near  a  window  sat  an  artist.  I  looked 
over  his  shoulder  and  saw  that  he  was  painting  a 
scene  from  nature,  a  view  of  sky  and  shore,  and 
the  great  ocean  as  it  lay  upon  the  bosom  of  the 
beach.  And  as  this  artist  looked  out  upon  the 
countenance  of  nature  and  sought  to  reproduce  the 
beauty  that  rested  there,  his  face  was  lightened, 
and  I  thought  for  the  moment  that  he  must  have 
seen  the  soul  of  things.  But  the  fool  did  not 
see  because  of  the  metal  pieces  he  had  put  over 
his  eyes.  And  there  he  sat,  and  played,  seem¬ 
ingly  content,  not  knowing  that  he  had  lost  this 
field  of  pleasure,  this  “  world  of  profit  and  de¬ 
light.”  In  still  another  corner  sat  a  musician 
playing  on  an  organ.  Under  his  magic  touch, 
forth  from  this  instrument  came  the  sweetest  har¬ 
monies.  His  face  and  bearing  were  such  a  con¬ 
trast  to  that  of  the  fool’s;  his  whole  soul  seemed 
to  be  suffused  and  thrilled  with  the  flood  of  music 
that  flowed  through  him;  it  was  as  though  he 


204  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

heard  the  heavenly  music  and  the  singing  of  the 
choir  invisible;  his  face  was  lifted  up  and  his  look 
was  away  from  earth.  But  the  fool  did  not  hear, 
for  at  this  moment  his  ears  were  filled  with  his 
golden  playthings.  In  the  fourth  corner  of  that 
great  room  sat  one  who  was  reading  in  a  book.  I 
glanced  at  the  back  of  the  book  and  saw  its  title 
was  “  the  Word  of  God,”  and  as  he  read,  he 
mused,  and  as  he  mused  his  heart  burned,  and  you 
could  see  the  glow  of  his  thoughts  in  his  face,  for 
his  face  shone  as  it  had  been  the  face  of  an  angel; 
he  had  an  attent  look  as  though  he  heard  voices,  a 
rapt  expression  as  though  he  saw  visions,  and, 
as  I  saw,  I  thought,  “  How  like  a  god  is  man.” 
But  the  fool  did  not  heed  for  he  was  employed 
and  absorbed  in  running  the  metal  bits  through 
his  fingers,  and  counting  them  over  as  they  fell. 

Yet  sad  as  was  this  case  —  no  one  held  him 
guilty,  for  he  was  born  a  fool.  He  himself  was 
not  to  blame  —  just  an  ordinary  fool  —  but  I 
could  not  help  thinking  what  if  one  should  inten¬ 
tionally  get  himself  into  this  condition,  into  the 
state  of  this  driveling  idiot  —  how  could  such  a 
fool  escape  just  blame. 

O,  what  heart  aches,  heart  breaks,  divisions  in 
families,  destruction  of  affection,  sacrifices  of  the 
best  in  men,  have  been  caused  by  those  who 
sought  to  lay  up  for  themselves  treasures  upon  the 


FREE  FROM  BONDAGE  OF  GOLD  205 


earth.  What  a  hard  master  is  the  lust  of  gold! 
And  then  I  heard  the  ringing  of  “  The  Bells,”  the 
bells  of  conscience,  the  bells  of  accusation  —  and 
before  me  passed  Mathias,  his  face  in  terror,  as 
he  beheld  the  Polish  Jew  he  had  murdered  — 
murdered  that  he  might  have  his  gold. 

“  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  the 
earth,”  says  the  Master  —  for  it  not  only  makes 
a  man  a  slave  in  the  getting  but  it  is  the  bondage 
of  life  to  that  man  who  has  gotten.  Behold  the 
money  lover’s  utter  dependence  on  his  wealth;  he 
will  give  up  everything  really  worth  having  to 
keep  that  gold  which  is  not  worth  having.  Was 
not  this  the  teaching  of  Christ’s  experience  with 
the  rich  young  ruler.  An  earnest,  honest,  sin¬ 
cere,  amiable,  worthy  young  man,  yet  so  bound 
by  his  golden  chains  that  in  sadness  he  turns  away 
from  the  Lord  of  Life. 

They  that  trust  in  their  riches  will  sacrifice 
friends,  family  affection,  honor,  fame,  religion, 
soul  and  God,  before  they  will  lose  their  hold  of 
that  fatal  treasure. 

And  mark  you  here,  the  peril  of  this  disease  de¬ 
pends  not  on  the  matter  of  degree  but  on  the  kind. 
The  man  who  loves  and  trusts  in  his  hundred  dol¬ 
lars  is  of  like  kind  with  the  man  who  loves  and 
trusts  his  millions.  Each  is  bitten  with  the  can¬ 
cer.  Each  is  doomed  to  death  —  unless  the 


20 6  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


malefic  growth  be  cut  out. 

Is  it  not  a  striking  and  significant  fact  that  that 
great  image  which  Nebuchadnezzar  made  and  set 
up  in  the  plain  of  Dura  and  commanded  men  to 
worship  was  an  image  of  Gold?  Men  were  wor¬ 
shiping  gold  over  two  millenniums  and  a  half  ago, 
as  men  are  worshiping  the  golden  image  to-day. 
Christ  is  here  dealing  with  an  inveterate  menace 
to  the  well-being  of  man. 

I  once  knew  a  man,  in  our  day,  who  had  an 
idol  carved  of  gold.  He  was  accustomed  to  have 
it  set  in  a  temple  called  a  “  sky-scraper,”  in  a  great 
city,  and  in  an  holy-place  called  an  office.  There 
he  would  go  every  day  to  worship  it  with  the 
strangest  ceremonies  and  rites.  He  would  bow 
down  before  this  image  sometimes  forty  times  a 
day.  He  would  make  offerings  to  it  of  honor, 
honesty,  manhood  and  truth.  Rut,  even  stranger 
than  this,  once  in  a  while  he  would  go  out  into  the 
streets  of  this  great  city  and  catching  one  of  his 
friends  by  guile,  he  would  bind  him  hand  and 
foot  with  fair  promises,  and  bring  him  into  this 
holy  place  before  the  golden  idol.  Then  he 
would  bring  out  a  sharp  knife  and  slitting  the 
throat  of  his  best  friend  he  would  spill  his  blood 
on  the  floor,  leaving  the  friend’s  children  father¬ 
less  and  the  friend’s  widow  to  mourn  in  a  deso¬ 
late  household. 


FREE  FROM  BONDAGE  OF  GOLD  207 


But  even  stranger  than  this  —  I  have  known 
him  to  take  his  own  children  and  give  them  the 
slow  poison  of  false  ideals  and  teachings  concern¬ 
ing  gold,  until  on  the  last  day,  when  the  power¬ 
ful  drug  had  worked  to  the  killing  point,  he  would 
put  the  innocent  little  one  into  a  carriage,  weak 
and  dying,  and  would  bring  the  child  into  this 
holy  place  to  die,  at  the  foot  of  the  golden  image; 
himself  dancing  about  and  rubbing  his  hands  with 
glee.  Then  still  more  strange,  the  son  or  daugh¬ 
ter  being  dead,  he  would  clothe  himself  in  deep 
mourning,  buy  a  dozen  pocket  handkerchiefs  and 
go  about  the  streets,  alternately  weeping  and 
drying  his  eyes  with  one  of  the  dozen  handker¬ 
chiefs,  that  people  might  think  him  sane  and  sound 
of  mind,  overcome  with  natural  grief  and  filled 
with  real  affection.  These  and  a  hundred  more 
such  foolish  things  he  would  do.  The  attention 
of  the  authorities  was  again  and  again  called  to 
his  irrational  acts;  the  blood  stains  on  the  floor  of 
the  sacrificial  altar  were  shown;  the  dead  bodies 
of  his  children  were  exhibited,  and  some  sensible 
men  said  that  he  should  really  be  put  into  an 
asylum.  But  the  authorities  only  shook  their 
heads  and  said,  “No;  his  children  are  his  own 
and  he  has  a  right  to  do  with  them  as  he  pleases.” 

“We  are  sorry  about  the  friends,  but  business 
is  business  ”  (a  phrase  by  which  the  authorities 


208  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


were  wont  to  excuse  themselves).  “  As  for  his 
worship  of  that  golden  idol  —  surely  a  man  may 
worship  what  he  chooses.” 

So  the  man  was  not  adjudged  of  unsound,  un¬ 
balanced  or  even  abnormal  mind,  but  was  ap¬ 
plauded  and  accounted  a  shrewd  and  successful 
business  man  by  the  majority  of  his  fellows.  But 
the  really  wise  judged  him  to  be  a  fool,  and  their 
judgment  was  true,  for  on  a  certain  day  it  was 
found  that  his  madness  had  run  to  such  a  degree 
that  he  took  his  own  life  at  the  foot  of  the  golden 
image  which  he  had  worshiped  so  long — and 
then  all  men  knew  why  the  wise  had  long  since 
declared  that  he  was  only  a  rich  fool. 

Is  it  not  true  to  the  facts,  as  Christ  here  inti¬ 
mates,  that  those  who  fix  their  hearts  on  gold  are 
all  their  lives  under  the  bondage  of  the  fear  of 
losing  it?  You  have  seen  that  worldly  wealthy 
man  sitting  up  o’  nights,  figuring,  planning,  suf¬ 
fering  through  the  dread  of  coming  to  “  the  poor 
house.”  I  believe  it  to  be  true,  that  that  fabled 
“  Wolf  ”  of  want,  of  which  so  many  unpleasant 
things  are  said,  more  often  thrusts  his  gaunt,  wiz¬ 
ened,  hungry  visage  into  the  mansion  of  the  rich 
than  into  the  door  of  the  poor  man’s  house. 

Now  Jesus  tells  us  here,  in  strongest  terms,  that 
that  thing  which  those  who  trust  in  riches  most 
dread,  the  loss  of  gold  and  goods,  is  that  thing 


FREE  FROM  BONDAGE  OF  GOLD  209 


which  is  most  certain  to  happen.  Therefore, 
concludes  he,  do  not  put  your  trust  in  that  which 
you  must  lose.  His  general  teaching  is  that  these 
riches  contain  within  them  the  very  elements  of 
their  own  destruction — “moth  and  rust”  wear 
and  tear  —  depreciation  and  change  —  earthiness 
—  evanescence,  characterize  them  all.  And  when 
this  disintegration  has  taken  place  your  riches 
are  gone. 

But  besides  the  corruption  which  is  of  the  very 
essence  of  these  things  —  there  are  abstracting 
influences  from  without — “thieves  break 
through  and  steal.”  Is  this  not  true  to  every  age 
of  the  world’s  history?  We  are  mindful  of  that 
man  who  went  down  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho, 
and  experienced  such  hard  usage  at  the  hands  of 
thieves. 

Macaulay  in  his  History  of  England,  in  that 
gem  of  all  the  chapters,  “  The  State  of  England 
in  1685,”  has  a  section  devoted  to  highwaymen. 
Says  he,  “  Whatever  might  be  the  way  in  which  a 
journey  was  performed,  the  travelers,  unless  they 
were  numerous  and  well  armed,  ran  considerable 
risk  of  being  stopped  and  plundered.  The 
mounted  highwayman,  a  marauder  known  to  our 
generation  only  from  books,  was  to  be  found  on 
every  main  road.” 

Even  those  picturesque  castles  on  the  Rhine  are 


2io  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


some  of  them  only  the  stately  abodes  of  the  high- 
.  waymen  of  the  river,  who,  to  quote  from  one  of 
John  L.  Stoddard’s  lectures,  “  Like  vultures,  from 
their  eyries,  watched  the  boats  descend  the  stream, 
and  if  the  tribute  they  demanded  was  refused 
them,  they  promptly  attacked  the  crew  and  secured 
the  cargo  for  themselves.” 

And  even  to-day,  while  we  can  boast  of  but 
few  of  the  bold,  dramatic  highwaymen  of  the 
earlier  times,  we  have  our  artistic  and  thorough¬ 
going  bands  of  thieves,  who  rob  legally,  quietly 
and  by  wholesale.  Let  no  one  say  that  we  have 
no  Robber  Barons,  and  that  thieves  do  not  break 
through  and  steal,  while  the  trusts  are  among  us 
to  throttle  the  life  out  smaller  industries,  and  bear 
away  our  savings  in  a  gentleman-like  way,  and  ac¬ 
cording  to  law.  The  motto  of  the  wise  and  witty 
wag,  “  Blessed  are  they  who  have  nothing,  for 
they  cannot  lose  it,”  testifies  that  even  to-day 
“  thieves  break  through  and  steal.” 

Though  a  man  might  be  so  shrewd,  so  strong 
or  so  fortunate  as  to  escape  all  of  these  marauders, 
does  the  Christ  teach  us,  in  that  parable  of  the 
Rich  Fool,  illustrative  of  the  very  text  on  which 
he  is  here  speaking,  that  this  does  not  mean  that 
he  has  escaped  the  inevitable  penalty  of  those 
who  trust  in  riches.  For,  though  one  might  have 
traversed  all  life’s  roads,  sailed  down  all  its 


FREE  FROM  BONDAGE  OF  GOLD  21 1 


rivers,  braved .  its  perils  of  robbers,  yet,  when 
it  comes  to  the  crossing  of  that  last,  narrow:, 
dark,  swift-flowing  stream  —  there  meets  us  on 
its  brink  the  robber  “  Death  ” —  who  quietly  com¬ 
mands,  “  Leave  all  your  goods  on  the  hither 
side,”  and  him  all  men  obey.  “  Then  whose 
shall  those  things  be?”  Flow  poor  indeed  is 
that  man  who  enters  eternity,  the  necessities  of 
heaven  bartered  for  gold,  and  the  gold  taken 
from  him  at  its  gates?  What  provision  has  he 
left  for  the  long  journey  of  eternity? 

But  our  Life’s  Teacher  is  not  so  poor  a  psychol¬ 
ogist,  so  impractical  an  instructor,  as  to 
merely  arrest  and  stun  us  with  a  negative  com¬ 
mand.  He  knows  that  the  true  law  of  a  wise  in¬ 
hibition  is  to  give  a  new,  a  right  direction,  to 
man’s  instinctive  impulses.  Therefore  follows 
the  command,  the  complement  of  the  other,  “  But 
lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven.”  Seek 
as  your  golden  store,  the  heavenlies  —  those 
things  which  lie  in  the  spiritual,  the  unseen  and 
therefore  in  the  sphere  of  the  eternal.  Make 
your  “  goods  ”  to  be  those  of  the  heart,  the  mind, 
the  soul;  patience,  lowliness,  kindness,  is  such  a 
casket  of  jewels;  purity,  peaceableness,  service,  is 
such  a  mine  of  treasure.  What  a  blessed  thought, 
what  a  satisfying  sight,  what  a  worthy  occupa¬ 
tion,  to  behold  one  day  by  day  adding  to  the 


2i2  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


richer  self.  What  a  noble  work  for  the  man! 
A  new  country  conquered,  a  new  waste  tract  or 
savage  tribe  in  self  subjugated  and  brought  under 
right  and  reasonable  action.  Period  after  period 
of  life,  to  find  a  new  gem,  a  new  treasure,  a  bright 
nugget  of  real  gold,  added  to  the  riches  of  the 
heart  life.  Then  to  realize  that  these  are  treas¬ 
ures  that  can  never  perish,  can  never  depreciate 
in  value!  We  can  readily  conceive  of  a  time 
when  clothes  and  fashion  no  longer  interest;  we 
can  picture  a  moment  when  food  and  well  stored 
barns  cease  to  be  of  worth  or  service;  we  can 
imagine  conditions  when  gold  is  no  longer  valu¬ 
able;  but  we  cannot  conceive  of  the  moment,  nor 
dream  of  the  time,  when  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
when  God  and  His  truth,  His  promises,  His  love, 
His  fatherly  relation  to  men,  would  not  make 
lighter  sorrow,  brighter  joy,  and  richer  the  soul 
who  has  them.  These  are  the  “  goods  ”  of  life, 
which  have  no  corrupting  quality  within,  which 
are  not  in  peril  of  being  stolen  from  without; 
these  are  the  spiritual  riches  wThich  the  more  they 
are  spent  the  more  they  increase. 

Then  the  Master  concludes,  with  that  pregnant 
sentence  which  gives  the  reason  of  it  all:  “  For 
where  thy  treasure  is  there  will  thy  heart  be  also.” 
The  heart  is  the  man  —  and  the  man  is  the  con¬ 
cern  of  all  of  our  Master’s  teaching. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


LIVE  FREE  FROM  THE  BONDAGE  OF 
DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 


Matt,  vi,  22-24 


HERE  are  some  who  have  thought  that 


A  this  passage  is  interpolated,  out  of  order,  un¬ 
related  and  meaningless.  But  I  think  that  a  de¬ 
gree  of  study  will  reveal  to  us  the  fact  that  it  is 
necessary,  in  place,  related  to  the  context  and 
very  significant  in  its  meaning. 

It  is  true  that  the  passage  faces  two  ways,  and 
may  be  connected  logically  with  either  the  pre¬ 
ceding  or  the  following  passages;  it  certainly  looks 
backward  and  is  an  illustration  of  what  has  just 
been  said,  and  it  looks  forward  by  way  of  intro¬ 
duction  to  what  is  about  to  be  said.  It  is,  in 
short,  the  connecting  link  between  the  thought, 
“  Where  your  treasure  is  there  will  your  heart 
be  also,”  and  the  approaching  thought,  “  Be  not 
anxious  for  your  life,”  etc. 

It  is  the  New  Testament  echo  of  that  appeal 
made  on  Carmel’s  height,  that  afternoon  so  many 
centuries  before,  when  the  prophet  Elijah  called 
his  trembling  auditors  to  a  decision  with  the 


214  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

words,  “  How  long  will  ye  go  limping  between 
two  opinions  —  if  the  Lord  be  God  follow  him; 
but  if  Baal  be  god  then  follow  him.”  1  It  is  the 
Master’s  reiteration  of  those  principles  insisted  on 
by  the  prophets  in  every  stage  of  Israel’s  history 
* —  singleness  of  purpose,  fixity  of  choice  —  one¬ 
ness  of  service. 

Israel’s  great  sin,  the  sin  which  weakened  her 
national  life,  the  sin  which  carried  her  away  into 
the  Babylonian  captivity,  was  vacillation,  double¬ 
mindedness,  half-heartedness,  the  fruitless  and 
fatal  attempt  to  serve  two  masters. 

This  same  lesson  Jesus  seeks  to  impress,  in  this 
instance,  by  proving  the  impossibility  of  any  other 
course.  This  he  does  by  means  of  the  connected 
syllogism  known  in  logic  as  the  enthymeme. 
“  This  is  peculiarly  the  argument  of  the  orator. 
Jesus  Christ,  who  spoke  as  never  man  spake,  fre¬ 
quently  employed  this  contracted  syllogistic  form. 
The  Beatitudes,  recorded  in  the  fifth  chapter  of 
St.  Matthew  are  beautiful  examples.”  2  He  re¬ 
sorts  to  the  reductio  ad  absurdum  —  he  who 
serves  more  than  one  master  really  serves  no 
master,  and  reaches  the  conclusion,  “  Ye  cannot 
serve  God  and  Mammon  ” —  therefore  serve 
God. 

1 1  Kings  xviii,  21. 

2  “  How  to  Attract  and  Hold  an  Audience,”  by  J.  Benjamin 
Esenwein,  1902, 


DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 


215 


The  proposition  he  seeks  to  establish  is  this  — 
the  folly  and  futility  of  double-mindedness  —  the 
fatality  of  having  two  supreme  purposes.  The 
passage  throughout  is  a  keen  piece  of  reasoning 
and  requires  close  attention  and  sharp  thinking  to 
follow  it. 

The  argument  is  introduced  and  illustrated  and 
the  points  to  be  established  are  stated,  by  means 
of  the  figure  of  the  eye,  which  teaches  that  the 
supreme  purpose  of  the  life  is  the  master  of  the 
life.  “  The  lamp  or  light  of  the  body  is  the  eye,” 
etc. 

Whatever  be  the  origin  of  the  eye,  it  is  a  won¬ 
derful  organ  and  wonderfully  placed.  Whether 
the  eye  were  created  forthwith  at  the  creation  of 
man,  or  whether  the  eye  has  been  developed  and 
called  out  by  the  influence  of  the  light  rays  on  some 
more  sensitive  part  of  man’s  body,  makes  little 
difference.  We  are  glad  that  the  eye  has  ap¬ 
peared  and  glad  that  it  has  appeared  just  where  it 
is,  for  to  the  function  and  to  the  position  of  the 
eye  man  is  greatly  indebted  every  day  of  his  life. 
The  eye  from  its  power  of  vision  contributes  to 
life,  profit,  pleasure  and  power  —  and  from  its 
position  it  reveals  peril,  discloses  advantages, 
guides  the  way  and  is  the  lamp  of  the  entire  man. 
It  is  an  absolute  deprivation  to  be  blind;  it  is  a 
relative  deprivation  to  have  a  defective  and  im- 


21 6  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


perfect  sight.  A  man  could  not  wish  such  an  in¬ 
firmity  for  himself,  and  a  man  would  be  rid  of 
such  an  infirmity  if  he  could. 

Now  the  eye  is,  to  one  who  sees  thoughts  in 
things,  an  apt  physical  illustration  of  a  moral  and 
spiritual  truth;  it  is  the  symbol  of  foresight  and 
purpose.  The  man  whose  eye  is  single  and  sound 
knows  where  he  is  going  and  walks  a  direct,  sure 
course.  The  man  whose  eye  is  double,  imper¬ 
fect,  walks  in  ignorance,  and  goes  an  uncertain, 
tortuous  and  dangerous  way.  Says  the  apostle 
James,  “  A  double  minded  man  is  unstable  in  all 
his  ways.”  3  And  Peter  writes  concerning  those 
who  lack  the  vision  of  spiritual  things,  “  But  he 
that  lacketh  these  things  is  blind  and  short¬ 
sighted  ”  (myopic  is  the  exact  word).4  As  we 
catch  these  thoughts,  spontaneously  before  our 
minds  passes  the  figure  of  a  drunken  man,  who 
sees  double,  uncertainly,  and  goes  reeling  and 
staggering  along  his  crooked  and  perilous  road. 

Now  apply  this  figure  taken  from  the  physical 
to  the  mental  and  moral  way  of  life,  and  we  imme¬ 
diately  apprehend  the  teaching  of  the  passage: 
that  man  who  has  a  clear,  single,  supreme  pur¬ 
pose  in  life  is  the  man  who  goes  directly  and 
surely  to  the  goal,  but  the  man  who  has  a  double 

3  James  i,  8. 

4  II  Peter  i,  9. 


DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 


217 


purpose  is  the  man  who  walks  uncertainly  and 
reaches  —  nowhere.  In  other  words,  life’s  pur¬ 
pose  is  life’s  lamp.  With  this  striking  introduc¬ 
tion,  the  question  is  fairly  before  us.  Turn  now 
to  the  line  of  reasoning,  and  it  is  as  follows:  No 
man  can  serve  two  masters  —  no  man  can  have 
two  supreme  purposes  in  life. 

There  is  good  reason  and  need  for  the  Master 
to  bring  this  truth  before  the  minds  of  his  hearers 
because  there  seems  to  be  an  inclination  and  a  be¬ 
lief,  evidenced  by  men’s  actions,  that  more  than 
one  supreme  purpose  in  life  is  possible  and  that  a 
man  can  serve  two  Masters.  This  attempt  to 
serve  more  than  one  Master  was  true  to  the  times 
long  before  Christ.  The  heathen  prophet  Balaam 
is  an  instance  of  such  a  man.  Balaam  is  spoken  of 
in  the  Scripture  record  as  “  the  man  whose  eyes 
are  open,”  the  man  “  which  heard  the  words  of 
God,  which  saw  the  vision  of  the  Almighty,  fall¬ 
ing  into  a  trance,  but  having  his  eyes  open.”  5  Of 
him  writes  Dean  Stanley,  “  In  his  career  is  seen 
that  recognition  of  divine  inspiration  outside  the 
chosen  people,  which  the  narrowness  of  modern 
times  has  been  so  eager  to  deny,  but  which  the 
Scriptures  are  always  ready  to  acknowledge,  and, 
by  acknowledging,  admit  within  the  pale  of  the 
teachers  of  the  universal  church,  the  higher  spirits 

5  Numbers  xxiv,  3-4. 


2 1 8  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


of  every  age  and  of  every  nation.”  6  In  Balaam 
we  have  the  case  of  a  man  who  had  a  vision  of 
God,  a  man  who  knew  the  right,  a  man  who  de¬ 
sired  to  speak  the  truth  for  God,  until  that  day 
when  Balak  the  son  of  Zippor  came  with  his 
princes  and  with  his  presents  and  set  before 
Balaam  a  new  purpose  —  then  his  mind  was  di¬ 
vided,  his  vision  was  clouded,  his  way  was  un¬ 
certain  and  his  end  was  pitiable.  He  attempted 
the  impossible  task  of  reconciling  the  service  of 
God  with  the  service  of  Mammon  —  and  he 
failed. 

Come  down  in  the  history  of  the  Jews  until  the 
times  of  the  kings  and  the  divided  empire,  and 
in  King  Ahaz  we  have  another  instance  of  a  like 
attempt.  King  Ahaz  worshiped  God,  but  he 
made  his  sons  pass  through  the  fire  to  Molech; 
he  trusted  in  Jehovah  but  put  himself  under  the 
base  protection  of  Tiglath-Pilezer,  king  of  Assy¬ 
ria;  he  sacrificed  on  the  altar  of  the  temple 
of  Jehovah,  but  “  he  saw  an  altar  that  was  at 
Damascus  ”  and  he  sent  home  a  copy  of  it  for  his 
workmen  to  build  him  one  like  it,  and  said,  “  The 
brazen  altar  shall  be  for  me  to  inquire  by.”  His 
life  was  guided  by  a  divided  purpose,  and  so  was 
a  failure.  As  an  evidence  of  this  writes  Dean 
Milman:  “  In  short,  had  not  his  death  relieved 

6  “  History  of  the  Jewish  Church,”  A.  P.  Stanley. 


DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 


219 


his  people,  Jerusalem  seemed  rapidly  following 
the  example,  and  hastening  towards  the  fate  of 
Samaria.”  It  was  just  such  impossible  and  fatal 
principles  that  Hosea  reproved,  against  these 
that  Isaiah  preached,  these  that  Micah  con¬ 
demned,  and  because  of  these  Jeremiah  lamented. 

Come  down  to  the  years  after  Christ,  and  do 
we  not  still  find  men  attempting  this  impossible 
way?  We  need  not  wait  long  for  the  entrance  of 
witnesses  to  the  truth  of  the  statement  —  Car¬ 
dinal  Wolsey  pushes  his  way  through  the  crowd 
of  those  ready  to  testify  and  takes  the  stand. 
Here  was  a  man  great  with  his  master,  Henry  the 
Eighth;  high  in  favor;  like  Joseph,  second  ruler 
in  the  kingdom ;  really  the  pope  of  England.  He 
was  a  man  whose  life  was  guided  by  a  double 
purpose  —  he  sought  to  serve  God  and  his  of¬ 
fice,  and  he  sought  to  serve  the  king  and  his  in¬ 
terests.  That  he  served  the  king,  he  who  runs 
may  read;  that  he  purposed  serving  God,  the  his¬ 
torian  Green  shows  us  in  this  sentence,  “  Were  the 
marriage  once  made,  he  told  the  French  ambassa¬ 
dor,  and  a  male  heir  born  to  the  realm,  he  would 
withdraw  from  state  affairs  and  serve  God 
for  the  rest  of  his  life.”  Let  Wolsey’s  death-bed 
testimony  witness  to  the  worth  of  a  double  serv¬ 
ice.  Says  he,  at  that  moment  when  we  may 
count  men  ready  to  speak  the  truth,  “  Had  I  but 


220  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


served  God  as  diligently  as  I  have  served  the  king, 
He  would  not  have  given  me  over  in  my  gray 
hairs.  But  this  is  my  due  reward  for  my  pains 
and  study,  not  regarding  my  service  to  God,  but 
only  my  duty  to  my  prince.”  Even  as  astute  and 
strong  a  man  as  Wolsey  could  not  serve  two 
masters. 

Come  down  to  this  present  moment,  and  after 
so  many  years  of  trial  and  so  many  instances  of 
failure  do  we  not  find  men  attempting  the  same 
thing?  Men  who  divide  things  into  secular  and 
sacred,  time  into  secular  and  sacred,  service  into 
secular  and  sacred,  are  seeking  to  serve  two  mas¬ 
ters  —  the  man  who  says  to  himself,  as  a  lawyer 
once  said  to  me,  “  I  propose  to  make  my  pile,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  way  of  the  world,  and  then  I  pro¬ 
pose  to  serve  God  according  to  the  way  of  the 
Word.”  Most  men  are  not  as  honest  in  their 
admission  of  the  fact  —  but  far  too  many  are  as 
diligent  in  their  twofold  service. 

The  man  who  is  a  believer  in  Jesus  and  yet  not 
a  confessor  and  follower  of  him,  is  making  the 
futile  attempt  to  serve  two  masters,  is  seeking  to 
hold  God  in  one  hand  and  Mammon  in  the  other, 
with  the  chances  largely  in  favor  of  Mammon 
gaining  occupancy  of  the  other  hand.  He  who 
lives  after  this  plan  walks  in  the  night.  “  If 
thine  eye  be  double,  thy  whole  body  shall  be  full 


DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 


221 


of  darkness.” 

From  this  point  Jesus  proceeds  with  the  rea¬ 
soning  and  exhibits  the  unwisdom  of  such  a 
course.  It  is  unwise  because  it  is  impossible. 
“  Ye  cannot,”  is  the  categorical  way  in  which  he 
puts  the  matter. 

We  have  heard  of  a  Frenchman  who,  replying 
to  his  valet  who  had  used  the  word  “  can’t  ”  in 
his  hearing,  said,  “  Never  use  that  odious  and  dis¬ 
couraging  word  in  my  presence  again.” 

Now  while  one  must  be  cautious  in  declaring 
what  is  impossible,  yet  one  can  certainly  affirm 
that  the  contradictory  is  impossible;  and  to  have 
two  supreme  purposes  in  life  is  contradictory.  It 
is  a  contradiction  in  terms.  Moreover,  it  is  a 
contradiction  in  fact;  man’s  mind  and  man’s  soul 
can  no  more  go  in  two  opposite  directions  at  the 
same  time  than  can  his  body.  His  soul  is  so  con¬ 
stituted  that  it  is  a  unit  and  cannot  be  divided 
against  itself.  He  thinks,  wills  and  feels  as  one, 
and  the  activity  of  one  faculty  involves  the  activity 
of  the  whole  man.  The  very  limitations  of 
choice  make  such  a  course  impossible.  The 
choice  of  one  object  is  the  rejection  of  others,  the 
choice  of  one  purpose  is  the  rejection  of  others, 
the  choice  of  one  master  is  the  rejection  of  all 
others. 

Not  only  is  this  course  morally  impossible, 


222  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


but  it  is  actually  impracticable,  says  our  Teacher, 
because,  if  a  man  could  have  two  masters,  “  He 
will  either  love  the  one  and  hate  the  other,”  which 
means  that  a  man’s  love  is  divided  —  a  divided 
love  is  an  imperfect  love  —  and  an  imperfect  love, 
half-hearted  love,  is  no  love  at  all. 

It  is  this  divided  love  which  has  blighted,  black¬ 
ened  and  destroyed  so  many  families  and  homes 
of  earth.  And  with  respect  to  a  man’s  relation 
to  his  God,  a  divided  love  is  against  the  very 
spirit  of  all  law  and  command,  for  it  is  written, 
“  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy 
mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength.”  To  have  two 
masters  is  to  divide  life’s  service;  “  He  will  hold 
to  the  one,  and  despise  (disregard)  the  other,” 
and  a  divided  service  is  an  imperfect  service. 

The  man  who  makes  his  supreme  purpose  in  life 
riches,  cannot  make  it  God  and  his  kingdom  at 
the  same  time. 

The  service  of  pleasure  and  knowledge  are  not 
infrequently  incompatible.  Popularity  and  char¬ 
acter  are  often  inconsistent.  On  the  counters  of 
this  world  a  man  is  offered  a  great  variety  of 
“  goods,”  and  the  business  of  this  life  is  to  learn 
to  choose  the  best  among  them.  What  God  de¬ 
mands  of  his  subjects  is  a  perfect,  whole-hearted 
service,  and  “  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  be- 


DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 


223 


fore  me  ”  is  the  sine  qua  non  to  real  religion. 

From  these  arguments,  and  from  a  glance  at 
man  and  the  world  of  men,  is  it  not  easy  to  infer 
that  such  a  course  is  fatal  to  the  man  himself? 
It  is  destructive  of  his  peace,  his  power  and  his 
efficiency.  To  have  two  masters  is  to  be  torn 
asunder,  to  be  in  a  condition  of  mental  unbalance, 
to  be  in  continual  debate  with  one’s  self;  it  results 
in  instability,  vacillation,  mental  distress  and  dis¬ 
quiet.  Now  these  things  are  destructive  of  pur¬ 
pose,  whose  chief  characteristic  is  fixity,  certainty 
and  unchangeableness.  Therefore,  the  man  who 
has  more  than  one  purpose  is  the  man  who  has  no 
purpose.  His  life  is  like  a  ship,  whose  compass 
is  broken,  sailing  in  the  night  over  a  troubled 
sea,  under  a  sky  wherein  there  is  no  fixed  star,  no 
point  by  which  to  direct  the  course. 

Such  a  plan  of  life  is  fatal  to  a  man  with  re¬ 
lation  to  his  fellows.  What  do  practical  men 
think  of  the  man  who  talks  one  way  and  works 
another  —  of  the  man  who  is  double-faced, 
double-minded,  double-purposed  —  of  that  person 
whose  relation  to  truth  depends  not  on  principle 
but  on  convenience  —  of  that  person  whose  serv¬ 
ice  depends  not  on  character  but  on  comfort? 
The  qualities  of  manhood  to-day  demanded  in 
every  station  and  calling  of  life  are  dependable¬ 
ness,  fidelity,  fixity  and  oneness  of  purpose.  This 


224  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


is  what  the  king  demands  in  his  subjects;  this  is 
what  the  commander  asks  in  the  soldier;  this  is 
what  the  pupil  needs  in  a  teacher;  this  is  what  the 
employer  requires  in  the  employee;  it  is  what  the 
mistress  seeks  in  her  housemaid;  this  is  what  the 
Church  wants  in  its  members.  This  is  what  God 
asks  in  his  servants.  God  will  not  ask  of  a  man 
in  service  less  than  a  man  asks  of  his  fellows. 
Therefore,  the  conclusion  is  reached,  “  Ye  cannot 
serve  God  and  Mammon,”  for  this  is  to  serve 
two  masters,  which  we  have  shown  to  be  impos¬ 
sible;  hence,  have  one  Master  and  that  one  God. 

To  have  one  Master  is  light  and  life.  “  If 
therefore  thine  eye  be  single,  thy  whole  body  is 
full  of  light.”  A  single,  clear  purpose  gives  the 
entire  man  freedom  from  uncertainty  and  doubt. 
The  goal  fixed,  the  mind  is  left  free  as  to  the  best 
course  of  attaining  it.  Whatever  we  may  think 
of  the  worth  or  worthlessness  of  the  goal,  the 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  afterwards  Richard  III  of 
England,  set  for  his  ambition,  one  thing  we  must 
admit,  he  had  unparalleled  fixity  of  purpose  and 
singleness  of  aim.  This  dwarfed  and  mighty  will 
said,  “  My  purpose  is  to  sit  on  the  throne  of  Eng¬ 
land,”  and  from  that  purpose  nothing  could 
swerve  him.  If  Lords  Grey,  Rivers,  Hastings, 
nephews,  brother,  friends,  any  one  or  anything 
stood  in  the  way,  they  must  be  swept  aside. 


DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 


225 


There  was  no  vacillation,  no  doubt;  he  hewed  a 
straight  course  to  a  known  end.  Singleness  of 
purpose  settles  a  man’s  mind  and  lends  direction 
and  color  to  all  his  life.  In  settling  the  great 
purpose,  all  lesser  and  conflicting  ends  are  settled. 
That  young  man  who  has  settled  for  himself  his 
work  and  calling  in  life,  in  the  greater  choice  has 
set  the  course  of  many  of  his  lesser  choices. 
Now  light  is  shed  upon  the  various  ways  of 
study,  habits,  training  —  his  whole  life  is  filled 
with  light.  He  goes  no  longer  gropingly  but 
sees  and  knows  the  way  he  takes. 

A  singleness  of  purpose  gives  a  man  an  or¬ 
dered,  effective,  positive  life.  Paul’s  great 
strength  sprang  from  that  principle  upon  which 
he  ever  acted,  “  This  one  thing  I  do.”  He  was 
whole  hearted  as  a  follower  of  Judaism,  and 
when  his  life  purpose  changed,  he  was  body,  soul 
and  spirit,  a  follower  of  Christ.  It  was  single¬ 
ness  of  purpose  that  made  the  life  of  Luther 
potent  and  effective.  And  John  Brown  of  Os- 
sawatomie  was  a  great  factor  in  our  national  his¬ 
tory  because  he  had  determined  by  his  life  or  by 
his  death  that  the  negro  slaves  must  be  freed. 
Have  one  master  in  your  life  is  the  teaching  of 
life’s  greatest  Master;  have  one  master  in  your 
life  is  the  teaching  of  the  successes  and  failures  of 
the  lives  of  men.  And  by  implication,  Christ 


226  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


teaches  us,  let  that  Master  be  God.  To  have 
God  and  His  kingdom  as  the  great  purpose  of  life, 
is  commensurate  with  life’s  highest  capabilities, 
and  is  in  harmony  with  the  highest  ends  of  the 
universe.  To  be  in  right  relation  to  the  center  of 
the  circle  is  to  be  in  right  relation  to  every  point 
in  that  circle;  to  be  in  right  relation  with  the 
Heart  of  the  Universe  is  to  be  in  right  relation 
with  every  part  of  the  universe. 

This  logical  argument,  this  rational  conclusion, 
is  an  introduction  to  that  warning  which  the 
Savior  is  about  to  give,  “  Be  not  anxious  for  your 
life,  what  ye  shall  eat,  what  ye  shall  drink,  and 
wherewithal  ye  shall  be  clothed.”  It  is  the 
foundation  upon  which  the  great  life  purpose  shall 
be  built,  “  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his 
righteousness.” 


CHAPTER  XIV 


LIVE  FREE  FROM  THE  BONDAGE  OF 
WORLDLY  CARE 
Matt,  vi,  25-34 

IF  Jesus  had  never  spoken  any  other  words 
than  those  contained  in  this  passage,  if  he  had 
never  taught  the  world  any  other  lesson  that 
this  contained  in  this  passage,  his  life  had  not  been 
lived  in  vain.  If  men  would  only  receive  and  be¬ 
lieve  this  truth  as  true,  if  they  would  only  lay  to 
their  hearts  and  apply  to  their  lives  this  needed, 
practical  lesson,  what  a  brighter,  happier  world 
we  should  live  in.  But  in  this  very  matter  where 
men  have  the  most  need  they  have  the  least  faith; 
where  the  Master  can  most  help  them,  they  are 
the  least  willing  to  follow  his  leading. 

The  civil  and  economic  conditions  of  the  people 
of  Palestine  were  not  as  favorable  as  they  are  at 
the  present  day.  The  people  were  not  as  well 
fed,  as  well  clothed,  as  well  housed,  nor  as  well 
paid  as  they  are  to-day.  “  The  peasant  popula¬ 
tion  of  the  Oriental  world  were  then,  and  indeed, 

are  generally  now,  the  tenants  at  will  of  a 

227 


228  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


despot.”  1  “  The  Jews  were  not  a  commercial 

people.”  “  Manufactures  were  of  the  simplest 
kind.  There  was  little  or  no  machinery.” 
“  The  chief  vocation  of  the  Jew  was  agriculture. 
But  what  modern  farmer  with  his  well-fenced 
farm,  his  bursting  barns  and  granaries,  his  innum¬ 
erable  plows  and  drills  and  reapers  and  mowers 
and  threshers,  in  the  midst  of  which  he  stands  be¬ 
wildered  by  the  very  multiplicity  of  the  conven¬ 
iences  that  are  offered  to  him,  would  recognize 
the  Jewish  agriculturist?  ”  “  Military  despo¬ 

tism,  that  cared  nothing  for  the  people  except  to 
gather  from  their  hard-earned  pittance  all  that 
rapacity  could  extort,  subjected  them  to  a  most 
corrupt,  oppressive  and  nefarious  taxation.” 

“  The  houses,  in  the  case  of  the  peasants,  were 
wretched,  one-roomed  huts  of  mud;  in  the  case  of 
the  wealthiest,  were  barren  of  the  simplest  neces¬ 
sities  of  modern  life,  though  ornate  with  luxury.” 

If  there  be  anything  in  external  conditions  to 
free  a  man’s  life  from  fret  and  anxiety,  people  of 
this  country  and  this  day  have  less  cause  for 
worry  than  those  who  lived  in  the  midst  of  the 
Palestinian  civilization.  And  yet  it  was  to  a  peo¬ 
ple  thus  circumstanced  that  Jesus  speaks  these 
stirring  words. 

1  This  and  the  following  quotations  from  “Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
His  Life  and  Teachings,”  by  Lyman  Abbott. 


FREE  FROM  WORLDLY  CARE  229 


This  is  Christ’s  “Don’t  Worry”  sermon;  it 
has  never  been  surpassed;  it  has  never  been 
equaled;  it  is  a  practical  talk  by  a  practical 
man  upon  a  practical  theme.  As  we  have 
intimated  before,  the  foundation  upon  which 
this  practical  advice  is  made  to  rest  —  is  in  that 
principle  he  has  just  established  —  ye  cannot  have 
two  masters,  have  but  one  —  that  one  God,  and 
show  your  trust  and  complete  service  to  Him  by 
freeing  yourselves  from  the  burden  and  bondage 
of  worldly  care  and  worry. 

The  theme  of  the  discourse,  which  runs  like  a 
golden  thread  from  beginning  to  end,  which  is 
repeated  formally  three  times,  and  which  under¬ 
lies  and  colors  every  thought  and  word  of  this 
passage,  is,  “  Be  not  anxious.”  And  please  to 
observe  that  this  freedom  from  anxiety  is  to  be 
in  the  sphere  of  the  physical,  the  material,  the 
temporal  necessities,  in  that  very  region  where 
men  fear  most  and  worry  most.  He  is  not  now 
speaking  of  things  divine  and  the  world  to  come 
—  but  of  this  present  time,  and  this  present  world, 
with  its  necessities,  its  wants,  its  need  of  food  and 
drink  and  clothes  —  this  very  world  which  is 
round  about  us  and  in  which  we  all  must  live. 

Jesus’  order  of  statement  of  his  teaching  is 
logical,  clear  and  forcible  —  in  his  opening  words 
he  declares  that  men  are  wont  to  worry  about  that 


23o  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

about  which  they  ought  not  to  worry.  What  is 
the  great  source  of  worry  to  the  lives  of  most 
persons?  Was  it  not  the  same  in  that  age  as  it  is 
in  this  age?  Is  it  not  ever  the  same,  could  our 
average  source  of  worry  be  more  aptly,  com¬ 
pactly,  completely  summed  up,  than  in  the  word 
anxiety  for  the  life,  what  we  shall  eat,  what  we 
shall  drink  and  what  we  shall  wear?  These  were 
the  things  that  people  were  worrying  about  in 
the  day  when  Jesus  was  on  earth.  Human  na¬ 
ture  in  Palestine  nineteen  hundred  years  ago  was 
much  the  same  as  human  nature  in  America  at 
the  present  day.  The  underlying  life  has  changed 
but  little.  People  worried  about  their  meat  and 
raiment  then;  people  worry  about  their  meat 
and  raiment  now.  Jesus  had  experience  with 
worrying  people  of  this  kind  —  he  came  near  to 
the  hearts  of  the  people  and  he  knew  what 
troubled  their  lives.  One  day  while  he  was  talk¬ 
ing  of  the  eternal  riches  and  blessings,  while  he 
was  making  clear  to  his  hearers  God’s  care 
for  them  and  His  minute  regard  for  the  least 
things  of  their  lives  —  one  of  the  audience,  whose 
thoughts  had  been  far  from  the  preacher,  who  had 
been  dwelling  on  the  injustice  of  a  selfish  brother, 
and  who  feared  for  his  own  material  well-being, 
interrupted  the  sermon  with  the  request, 
“  Master,  bid  my  brother  divide  the  inheritance 


FREE  FROM  WORLDLY  CARE  231 


with  me.”  Yes,  he  knew  what  it  was  that  troubled 
the  hearts  of  men.  He  knew  what  it  was  to  have 
an  inattentive  audience,  a  fearful  follower,  a 
faithless  disciple,  a  doubting  learner,  all  through 
the  bondage  of  this  world’s  care.  And  many  a 
man  of  the  present  day  is  driven  into  the  impos¬ 
sible  task  of  striving  to  serve  two  masters  through 
the  fear  and  worry  that  his  present  temporal 
needs  will  not  be  cared  for  by  the  God  whom  he 
ought  to  serve  with  a  whole  heart  and  a  single 
mind. 

Many  a  man  has  said  to  himself,  or  to  his  fel¬ 
lows,  or  his  life  says  for  him  more  plainly  than 
words  could  express  it,  “  Now  when  it  comes  to 
matters  of  religion,  of  Sundays,  and  things  of  soul 
and  spirit,  I  will  do  as  God  would  have  me  and 
serve  only  Him.”  “  But  when  it  comes  to  mat¬ 
ters  of  positions  and  possessions,  I  am  going  to  do 
what  the  world  does  and  what  the  times  demand.” 
“  If  a  man  is  to  get  along  in  business,  to  accumu¬ 
late  the  gold,  to  have  a  competence  and  living,  he 
must  do  just  what  the  rest  of  the  world  does.” 
“  I  propose  to  be  just  as  shrewd,  just  as  sharp, 
just  as  tricky,  deceptive  and  dishonest  in  my  oper¬ 
ations  as  the  rest  of  them,  and  no  more  so.”  “  If 
I  am  to  gain  my  positions  I  must  deal  in  false 
promises  like  the  rest  of  the  politicians;  I  must 
not  be  above  taking  my  ‘  rake-off  ’  on  the  good 


232  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

things  going;  I  must  use  the  worldly  way,  if  I  am 
to  get  the  worldly  rewards.”  “  I  do  not  pro¬ 
pose  to  let  my  religion  interfere  with  my  busi¬ 
ness;  business  is  one  thing  and  religion  is  another, 
and  I  am  not  going  to  allow  them  to  get  mixed.” 
“  Don’t  talk  to  me  about  religious  principles  in 
business;  I’ll  tell  you  they  don’t  go.  A  man  must 
live,  and  he  can’t  live  unless  he  adapts  himself  to 
what  the  world  dictates  as  the  policy  and  method 
for  the  getting  of  gain.”  “  When  it  comes  to 
matters  of  character  and  spiritual  culture,  I’ll  ad¬ 
mit  the  truth,  importance  and  worth  of  those  prin¬ 
ciples  and  commands  given  in  Scripture;  these  I 
propose  to  follow  and  attend  to  in  higher  matters, 
and  at  certain  set  intervals  and  stated  times.” 
“  The  church,  the  Sabbath,  the  prayer-meeting 
are  places  where  I  can  attend  to  these  things.” 
“  But  I  have  ambitions,  and  if  a  man  is  to  get 
ahead  he  must  make  his  own  way.  ...  I  have 
desires  and  wants,  a  family  to  keep  —  mouths  to 
be  fed,  children  to  be  clothed  and  cared  for,  and 
if  I  don’t  look  out  for  these  no  one  will.”  “  Men 
do  certain  things  in  business  life,  in  social  life,  in 
political  life,  and  unless  you  comply  with  these 
demands  you  are  lost  in  the  race.” 

This  is  the  way  in  which  men  are  talking  to¬ 
day.  This  is  what  is  called  wise,  sound,  worldly, 
practical  wisdom,  and  it  has  the  approval  of 


FREE  FROM  WORLDLY  CARE  233 


many,  many  lives. 

But  according  to  Jesus’  standard,  what  is  the 
man  who  follows  this  counsel  attempting  to  do? 
He  virtually  says,  to  put  the  matter  plainly,  I’ll 
serve  both  God  and  Mammon.  I  believe  each 
has  his  sphere,  his  duties,  his  commands,  and  each 
must  be  recognized. 

What  is  the  result?  That  a  man  is  trying  to 
do  that  which  Christ  has  just  shown  to  be  the  im¬ 
possible. 

What  is  it  that  oftenest  leads  men  to  this 
course  of  action?  Is  it  not  the  over  anxiety,  lest 
they  or  theirs  be  not  fed,  clothed,  housed,  and 
cared  for?  This  is  the  reason  that  nine-tenths  of 
the  dishonest  men  deal  dishonestly,  not  because 
they  love  dishonesty  itself  —  they  would  be  freed 
from  it  if  they  could.  This  is  the  reason  that 
men  live  the  double  life  and  have  only  a  formal 
service  toward  God  while  they  have  a  whole  heart 
service  toward  the  world.  Because  they  are  anx¬ 
ious,  because  they  know  the  need,  because  they 
have  a  family  and  multiplied  wants  every  day,  be¬ 
cause  they  are  not  sure  that  God  will  care  for 
them.  Where  are  the  necessary  things  coming 
from?  The  world  answers,  from  yourself,  and 
must  be  won  according  to  the  worldly  way. 

This  is  a  grave  question,  a  difficult  situation, 
a  hard  problem  —  there  is  not  a  man  who  lives 


234  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

and  who  has  others  dependent  on  him  who  has  not 
been  brought  face  to  face  with  the  grim  facts,  and 
who  has  not  felt  the  burden  of  their  care. 

Now  this  is  the  very  fear  Christ  seeks  to 
allay;  it  is  the  very  problem  he  seeks  to  solve,  it 
is  the  very  anxiety  he  seeks  to  remove. 

His  teaching  and  reiteration  and  command  and 
reasoning  to  his  disciples,  to  affirm,  is  to  prove, 
to  persuade  them,  to  convince  them,  to  make  sure 
the  contrary  —  to  wit,  that  God  does  care,  God 
does  provide,  eat,  drink,  clothes,  material,  tempo¬ 
ral  “  creature  comforts  ”  and  necessities.  And 
this  He  does  in  a  very  connected,  potent  line  of 
argument. 

Please  to  observe,  “  Be  not  anxious  ”  is  a  com¬ 
mand  of  the  Master,  and  it  can  and  must  be 
obeyed;  “  Be  not  anxious  ”  is  the  counsel  of  our 
Leader  and  it  can  and  must  be  followed;  “  Be 
not  anxious  ”  is  the  principle  of  the  religion  of 
Christ  and  it  can  and  must  be  observed,  if  we  are 
to  be  his  children.  And  so  he  turns  to  the  reasons 
for  not  worrying. 

We  ought  not  to  worry  about  these  things,  says 
our  Christ,  because  real  life  is  more  than  these 
things  of  food  and  drink.  You  may  have  these, 
all  of  these,  and  have  them  in  abundance,  but  if 
you  have  not  more  than  these,  then  you  are  not 
truly  living.  Do  not  the  lives  of  the  wealthy, 


FREE  FROM  WORLDLY  CARE  235 

rich,  world-filled  and  world-favored  men  and 
women,  who  are  yet  dissatisfied,  discontented,  un¬ 
happy  and  wretched,  prove  beyond  a  peradven- 
ture  that  “  a  man’s  life  consisteth  not  in  the 
abundance  of  the  things  that  he  possesseth”? 
Have  we  lived  so  short  a  time  and  have  we  lived 
with  so  little  observation  as  not  to  have  learned 
that  happiness  cometh  not  from  without,  not  from 
the  material,  but  from  within  and  from  the  spirit¬ 
ual?  If  we  have  not  learned  that  simple  truth, 
turn  to  even  the  pagan  philosophers  and  come  to 
know  the  primer  of  happiness. 

Again,  to  be  concerned  chiefly  with  these 
things  is  to  be  concerned  with  the  secondary 
things  of  life,  and  those  lives  which  are  chiefly 
concerned  with  secondary  things  are  secondary 
lives,  which,  spelled  large,  mean  —  failures. 

Again,  “  Don’t  worry,”  because  it  is  unneces¬ 
sary.  There  is  no  need  for  it.  Christ  here  re¬ 
sorts  to  an  a  fortiori  argument  —  if  he  cares  for 
those  who  are  inferior  and  of  less  importance  than 
you  how  much  the  more  will  he  care  for  you? 
“Where  is  your  reason?”  says  the  Master. 
Look  at  the  birds  —  your  Father  feeds  them,  not 
their  Father.  He  is  not  their  Father,  but  He  is 
your  Father,  your  heavenly  Father.  These  birds 
are  not  His  children  but  His  creatures  —  they 
are  merely  the  household  pets,  that  must  be  looked 


2 36  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

after.  Is  it  possible  that  a  good  father  will  feed 
the  dog  that  lies  by  the  fire  in  the  house  and  will 
see  his  own  children  going  hungry?  This  is  the 
silly  conclusion  of  those  who  reason  that  God 
does  not  care  for  you  in  material  things.  The 
argument  is  this:  if  God  cares  for  that  which  is 
least,  how  can  it  be  that  He  will  not  care  for  those 
that  are  so  much  more  to  Him,  even  his  children? 
O  ye  of  little  faith,  cannot  ye  see  this? 

Please  note  Christ  is  not  speaking  here  of  Spir¬ 
itual  wants  and  needs  but  of  meat,  drink,  cloth¬ 
ing;  just  those  necessities  that  cause  the  worry  and 
anxiety  of  life.  And  in  these  matters  we  are  the 
most  fortunate  of  all  earth’s  creatures,  for  we 
have  a  Father. 

The  argument  advances  a  step  further,  “  Do 
not  worry,”  because  it  is  futile.  There  is  no 
good  use  in  it.  Worry  will  not  do  you  any  good, 
in  these  very  particulars  in  which  you  are  so  dis¬ 
tressed.  God  can  and  God  does  satisfy  our 
needs,  and  only  God.  How  many  miracles  of 
three  years  plenty  and  three  years  famine,  how 
many  miracles  of  Elijah  and  the  widow’s  cruse  of 
oil  replenished,  how  many  miracles  of  multiplica¬ 
tion  of  loaves  and  fishes  to  feed  many  thousands, 
how  many  weddings  where  water  is  changed  into 
wine,  how  many  promises  that  neither  seed  time 
nor  harvest  shall  fail,  do  we  need  to  teach  us  that 


FREE  FROM  WORLDLY  CARE  237 

God  can  and  does  control  the  material  forces  of 
the  world?  The  grape  and  the  vine,  the  wheat 
and  the  wine,  these  things  He  can  give,  does  give, 
and  takes  delight  in  giving.  The  very  body  and 
souls  with  their  respective  needs  God  has  given  us. 
We  know  that  we  have  hunger  and  thirst,  ma¬ 
terial  needs  and  temporal  wants;  we  know  that  we 
have  reasons,  affections,  wills  and  appetences  of 
our  soul  nature.  Now  if  these  needs  be  written 
in  indelible  letters  in  the  very  constitution  of  our 
natures,  if  we  know  that  we  have  these  needs, 
God  knows  it  equally  well  and  better  than  we. 

Mark  you,  Christ  is  not  here  speaking  against 
work,  not  against  legitimate  activity  and  right  use 
of  the  powers,  privileges  and  faculties  God  has 
given  us,  but  against  anxiety  and  worry  in  their 
use.  If  these  needs  are  to  be  satisfied,  their  satis¬ 
faction  must  come  from  God,  and  our  fretting  and 
fuming  will  not  help  one  bit.  “  Which  of  you  be¬ 
ing  anxious,  by  your  anxiety  can  add  one  cubit  to 
his  stature?”  This  is  a  little  thing,  isn’t  it?  — 
a  few  inches  on  a  man’s  body?  “  If  then  ye  are 
not  able  to  do  that  which  is  least,  why  are  ye  anx¬ 
ious  concerning  the  rest?” 

The  thought  here  is  this,  fret  does  nothing  but 
wear  away  the  faith  and  the  life  of  the  fretter, 
and  unfit  him  for  the  plain  work  and  duty  of  life. 
This  is  a  reductio  ad  absurdum.  Keep  your- 


23  8  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

selves  calm  and  strong,  trust  your  Father,  and 
know  that  peace  which  the  world  cannot  give  nor 
take  away. 

It  is  not  our  worry  that  brings  the  material 
things  to  satisfy  our  needs.  Who  gives  the  seed, 
who  gives  the  soil?  Who  gives  the  command  to 
nature  to  bring  forth?  Who  fills  our  barns,  our 
bins,  our  banks?  Ourselves,  with  our  fret  and 
worry?  Not  much  —  God  does. 

Paul  may  plant  —  Apollos  may  water,  but  God 
gives  the  increase.  We  piously  thank  God  for 
His  gifts  at  certain  stated  seasons  and  the  rest  of 
the  time  worry  ourselves  sick  because  we  do  not 
really  believe  that  He  has  any  connection  with  the 
world  of  things.  Our  very  ignorance,  depend¬ 
ence  and  inability  drives  us  to  the  necessity  of 
trusting  Him  from  whom  cometh  every  good  gift 
and  every  perfect  giving.  We  could  see  this  as 
clearly  as  Christ  did,  were  it  not  for  our  inborn 
faithlessness. 

Though  worry  cannot  do  any  good,  it  certainly 
can  do  much  harm.  It  is  worry  rather  than  work 
that  is  breaking  and  killing  our  people  to-day. 
It  is  worry  that  is  the  cause  of  a  whole  host  of 
physical,  mental  and  moral  ills.  In  a  little  work 
on  the  subject  of  “  Worry  ”  Dr.  C.  S.  Kinney, 
who  was  for  over  twenty  years  in  charge  of  the 
Middletown  (New  York)  State  Homeopathic 


FREE  FROM  WORLDLY  CARE  239 


Hospital,  speaking  from  a  pathological  stand¬ 
point,  writes,  “  There  is  no  faculty  of  the  human 
mind  that  worry  does  not  affect.  There  is  no 
organ  of  the  human  body  that  it  may  not  destroy. 
It  dwarfs  the  intellect  of  the  child,  substitutes 
doubt  for  hope  and  turns  the  days  of  childhood 
into  periods  that  are  recalled  in  after  years  with 
sorrow  and  condemnation.  In  youth  or  middle 
age  it  foils  or  puts  in  jeopardy,  every  effort  of  the 
ambitious,  makes  failure  expected  and  success  a 
surprise.  It  is  found  smiling  over  the  open  grave 
of  the  suicide.”  “  The  ignorance  of  all  that 
worry  is  able  to  accomplish  in  blocking  human  ef¬ 
forts  is  daily  seen  among  the  patients  entering  our 
state  hospitals.”  In  substance,  he  continues, 
worry  is  an  open  door  to  the  worst  ills  of  the 
mind;  it  leads  to  melancholia,  mania,  paranoia 
and  paresis.  “  Worry  is  first  and  last  a  depres¬ 
sant.  It  may  excite  for  a  time  but  only  as  an  irri¬ 
tant,  followed  by  a  depression  of  the  organ  ex¬ 
cited.  It  cannot  coexist  with  perfect  health.” 
“  It  has  never  given  bread  to  the  hungry,  or 
money  to  the  needy.  It  never  has  helped  a  man 
and  it  will  not  help  you.” 

Still  the  argument  of  the  Master  advances  a 
step  further.  “  Don’t  worry,”  because  this  is  un- 
filial  and  faithless.  “  For,”  says  Christ,  “  after 
all  these  things  do  the  nations  seek.”  That  is, 


24o  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

this  is  the  very  spirit  of  worldliness,  it  is  the  spirit 
of  the  unconverted,  the  Fatherless,  the  unlight¬ 
ened;  those  who  are  in  the  darkness  and  igno¬ 
rance  of  sin  and  of  unbelief  are  the  worriers. 
Those  who  do  not  know  that  their  Father  is  liv¬ 
ing,  living  in  heaven  and  caring  for  them.  It  is 
the  commonest,  crudest,  crudest  form  of  faith¬ 
lessness.  “  Your  heavenly  Father  knoweth  that 
ye  have  need  of  these  things.”  What  things? 
These  about  which  He  has  been  speaking  thus 
far;  food,  clothing,  drink,  material  necessitiesw 
Now  if  He  knows  and  if  we  know  that  He  knows, 
what  a  shame  to  us  it  is,  what  unfilial,  faithless 
conduct  on  our  part  to  say  to  ourselves,  “  Well, 
if  we  are  to  have  food  and  clothing  and  money, 
and  the  good  things  of  this  earth,  we  must  get 
them  for  ourselves.”  “  Our  Father  doesn’t  care 
about  these  things.  He  would  as  soon  see  his 
children  die  of  hunger,  or  thirst,  or  want  —  He’s 
so  taken  up  with  spiritual  things  that  these  ma¬ 
terial  things  are  of  no  account.” 

O  short-sighted,  illogical,  faithless  humanity, 
so  to  divide  the  universe,  so  to  divide  the 
Father,  so  to  distress  the  soul.  What  would  a 
good  father  of  earth  think  of  a  child  who  con¬ 
stantly  and  persistently  fretted  and  worried  him¬ 
self  over  the  thought,  “  When  this  meal  is  over, 
will  I  have  another?  When  these  clothes  are 


FREE  FROM  WORLDLY  CARE  241 


worn  out,  am  I  sure  of  getting  others?  Can  I 
trust  my  father?  ” 

What  must  the  Father  in  heaven  think  of  those 
faithless  children  who  continually  ask  themselves 
questions  concerning  Him?  “  Don’t  worry  ”  to¬ 
day,  says  the  Christ,  for  you  have  a  Father  who 
knows  of  your  need  for  to-day,  and  will  provide 
for  it.  And  “  Don’t  worry  ”  about  to-morrow. 
Three  distinct  times  does  Jesus  use  the  prohibitive 
phrase,  “Be  not  anxious”;  the  first  time,  con¬ 
cerning  the  things  we  worry  about;  the  second, 
against  worrying  for  to-day;  the  third  time, 
against  worrying  for  to-morrow.  This  last  pro¬ 
hibition  makes  the  principle  still  wider  in  its  ap¬ 
plication.  Do  not  worry  about  the  future,  with 
all  the  material  necessities  and  wants  that  it  shall 
bring. 

Where  is  located  our  chief  worry?  Is  it  about 
to-day?  Look  within  yourself,  look  at  your 
friends,  listen  to  old  Money-bags  as  he  frets  and 
stews.  Is  it  to-day  he’s  worrying  about?  Not 
at  all,  he  has  plenty  in  the  bank,  but  he  worries 
just  the  same.  “  For,”  says  he,  “  one  can  never 
tell  what  may  happen.  Now  look  at  the  case  of 
Mr.,”  etc.,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.,  And  so  he  keeps  himself 
in  a  pother.  Now,  Jesus  says,  keep  yourselves 
free  from  this  spirit  of  the  world,  this  spirit  of 
bondage.  God  knows  the  future,  God  provides 


242  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

for  the  future,  He  is  still  your  Father,  the  same 
yesterday  to-day  and  forever.  If  this  discourse 
teaches  anything,  it  teaches  just  this,  that  the  sil¬ 
ver  and  the  gold  and  the  food  and  the  fullness 
of  the  earth  are  at  the  disposal  of  the  Lord  God, 
He  is  our  Father  and  we  are  His  children  and 
ought  to  trust  Him. 

In  this  logical  way,  step  by  step,  the  Teacher 
leads  his  hearers  from  the  prohibition  to  the  com¬ 
mand;  from  the  things  that  they  are  so  much  con¬ 
cerned  about,  that  ought  not  to  concern  them,  to 
the  things  that  they  are  not  enough  concerned 
about,  which  ought  most  to  concern  them.  But 
“  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteous¬ 
ness.”  These  things  ought  to  be  a  man’s  first 
concern  and  his  chief  concern,  because  they  are 
of  the  first  and  highest  importance.  Because  con¬ 
cern  in  these  matters  is  practical  and  effective. 
Most  men  think  that  they  are  here  chiefly  for 
food  and  drink  and  clothes  —  Christ  says  to  them, 
“  You  are  here  for  light  and  love  and  life  and 
training  and  character  —  Not  for  the  things  ma¬ 
terial;  these  are  necessary,  while  you  are  in  the 
world,  but  for  the  things  spiritual,  for  they  are  of 
the  highest,  most  lasting  worth  —  these  are 
earth’s  treasures.”  And  that  man  who  seeks  first 
God  and  His  kingdom  is  in  a  position  rightly  to 
use,  rightly  to  appreciate  and  rightly  to  enjoy  all 


FREE  FROM  WORLDLY  CARE  243 


the  other  good  things  of  life.  Then  adds  Jesus 
this  promise,  this  law  of  the  spiritual  world,  then 
“  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you.”  All 
things  needful  shall  be  yours.  The  law  of  the 
world  seems  to  be,  care  for  the  material  first  and 
then  for  the  spiritual  —  the  law  of  the  Master  is 
care  for  the  spiritual  first  and  then  for  the  ma¬ 
terial.  This  promise  seems  to  be  conditional; 
this  relation  seems  to  be  causal;  this  assurance 
seems  to  be  certain. 

To  whom  does  this  high  teaching  apply  —  to 
the  ill-provided  for  in  material  things,  to  those 
who  have  little  of  this  world’s  goods?  No!  it 
applies  to  all  who  are  his  disciples,  to  all  mankind 
it  has  a  meaning,  but  observation  and  reason  say 
to  us,  that  it  applies  three  times  over  to  the  pov¬ 
erty-stricken  rich.  To  those  who  are  well  cared 
for,  often  living  in  luxury,  who  have  tasted  the 
value  of  possessions,  and  who  have  become  so 
dependent  on  riches  that  they  would  rather  have 
their  lives  go  than  their  riches,  for  their  riches  is 
their  real  life.  It  applies  to  those  who  have  in 
any  measure  experienced  the  richness  of  God’s 
care  and  of  God’s  givings,  and  will  not  recognize 
that  these  things  belong  to  and  have  come  from 
Him. 

This  sermon  may  well  be  called  a  mountain 
sermon  because  of  the  altitude  of  its  moral  and 


244  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

spiritual  teachings.  And  these  altitudes  are 
reached  in  every  part  of  it.  Citizens  of  this 
kingdom  are  to  be  perfect;  its  laws  are  to  be  fol¬ 
lowed  in  spirit;  its  foundation  is  trust  in  God;  and 
its  children  are  not  to  worry.  This  teaching  of 
a  complete  trust  for  material  things  represents  an 
actuality  but  also  an  ideal.  It  is  not  easily  at¬ 
tainable,  yet  most  highly  desirable.  It  is  a  great 
need  of  this  present  age.  It  is  an  ideal  and  a 
reality  toward  which  we  must  make  resolve,  put 
forth  effort,  bring  ourselves  up  to,  in  our  daily 
living. 

Because  it  is  an  ideal,  it  is  not  an  impossibility. 
Our  true  riches  lie  in  an  increase  of  our  trust  and 
confidence  in  the  universal  care  of  our  Father 
which  is  in  heaven. 

No  greater  act  of  betrayal,  infidelity  or  unbe¬ 
lief  can  be  perpetrated  than  to  hold  and  to  go 
about  persuading  people  that  God  is  not  the  Pro¬ 
vider  and  Dispenser  of  meat  and  drink  and  rai¬ 
ment,  and  all  material  necessities. 


CHAPTER  XV 


LIVE  FREE  FROM  THE  BONDAGE  OF 
CENSORIOUSNESS 
Matt,  vii,  1-5 

THE  office  of  a  judge  is  a  high  and  noble 
calling.  There  is  no  body  of  men,  which 
conserves  the  laws,  promotes  the  public  well¬ 
being,  establishes  righteousness  and  right  living, 
better  than  a  just  and  faithful  judiciary.  “  The 
office  of  a  judge  is  always  necessary,  in  the  in¬ 
fancy  and  manhood  of  the  world;  it  was  a  pri¬ 
maeval"  institution  before  any  of  the  other  insti¬ 
tutions  or  tribes  or  cities  were  much  developed; 
it  will  continue  to  become  equally  important  until 
men  become  perfectly  just.”1. 

But  as  the  office  of  a  judge  is  a  high  office,  so 
it  has  high  requirements.  “  They  must  be  re¬ 
moved  as  far  as  possible  from  all  biases  and 
warping  influences.  .  .  .  They  must  have  the 
spirit  of  the  old  prophet,  who,  when  a  king’s  mes¬ 
senger  said  to  him,  ‘  Behold  now  the  words  of 
the  prophets  declare  good  unto  the  king  with  one 
mouth;  let  thy  word,  I  pray  thee,  be  like  the 

1  “  Political  Science,”  by  T.  D.  Woolsey,  Vol.  II,  p.  327. 

245 


2 46  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


word  of  one  of  them  and  speak  that  which  is 
good/  replied,  4  As  the  Lord  liveth,  what  the 
Lord  saith  unto  me,  that  will  I  speak/  ”  2  They 
are,  in  fact,  more  immediately  servants  of  God 
than  any  other  men  who  manage  the  affairs  of  a 
^country.  The  man  truly  qualified  to  occupy  the 
office  of  a  judge  needs  to  be  richly  qualified  and 
nobly  endowed.  To  judge  justly  he  must  be  a 
man  who  has  an  appreciation  of  motives,  a  fa¬ 
miliarity  with  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  a 
knowledge  of  the  laws;  the  skill  to  make  a  true 
application  of  the  legal  principles,  the  grace  to 
eliminate  himself,  and  to  pass  judgment  impar¬ 
tially,  without  fear  or  favor.  And  the  responsi¬ 
bility  resting  upon  a  judge  may  well  be  denomi¬ 
nated  awful.  His  is  the  exacting,  difficult  task 
to  be  just  and  yet  merciful,  to  be  true  and  yet 
kind,  to  condemn  and  yet  to  help. 

But  in  spite  of  these  requirements  and  in  the 
face  of  such  a  responsibility,  is  it  not  true  that 
nine-tenths  of  humanity  are  seeking  to  climb  to 
the  woolsack? 

It  is  to  this  bold,  thoughtless  and  dangerous 
ambition  of  men,  this  mad  desire  to  seek  an  office 
to  which  they  are  not  called,  to  covet  a  place  for 
which  they  are  not  qualified,  that  our  Master  di¬ 
rects  the  present  words. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  331. 


FREE  FROM  CENSORIOUSNESS  247 


In  direct  opposition  to  the  natural  tendency 
and  the  constant  activity  of  mankind,  Jesus  places 
this  categorical  command,  “  Judge  not  that  ye  be 
not  judged.”  Finally  and  forever  the  Master 
with  one  bold  stroke  sweeps  from  man  the  author¬ 
ity,  without  which  the  office  of  a  judge  cannot  be 
rightly  constituted. 

Says  Blackstone,  in  his  Commentaries,  speak¬ 
ing  of  the  Courts  of  England,  “  By  our  excellent 
constitution  the  sole  executive  power  of  the  laws 
is  vested  in  the  person  of  the  king,  it  will  follow 
that  all  courts  of  justice,  which  are  the  medium 
by  which  he  administers  the  laws,  are  derived 
from  the  power  of  the  crown.”  3  “  For,  whether 

created  by  act  of  parliament,  or  letters  patent, 

- the  king’s  consent,  is - expressly  or 

- impliedly  given.”  This  principle  applying 

to  the  kingdom  of  England  likewise  applies  to 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  in  the  words  of  our 
text  the  King’s  own  Son  expressly  denies  any  au¬ 
thority  from  the  King  himself,  for  an  individual 
man  to  sit  in  judgment  of  his  fellows. 

Indeed,  the  Christ  who  was  so  qualified  to 
judge  that  he  could  say,  “  If  I  judge,  my  judg¬ 
ment  is  true:  for  I  am  not  alone,  but  I  and  the 
Father  that  sent  me,”  yet  said,  “  I  judge  no 

3  Chase’s  Blackstone,  edition  of  1888,  p.  626.  In  quoting  I 
have  omitted  certain  irrelevant  matters  indicated  by  the  dashes. 


24S  the  life  worth  living 

man”;4  “For  I  came  not  to  judge  the  world, 
but  to  save  the  world  ”;5  and  who  is  there  who 
can  find  an  instance  in  his  life  on  earth  where  he 
passed  judgment  on  his  fellow  men?  Now  that 
which  he  would  not  do  himself,  he  could  not 
allow  his  less  qualified  disciples  to  do. 

The  command  here  given,  “  Judge  not  that  ye 
be  not  judged,”  receives  added  weight  and  im¬ 
portance  from  a  consideration  of  the  one  who  ut¬ 
tered  it.  These  words  were  spoken  by  one  who 
knew  men,  knew  life,  understood  the  hearts  of 
his  fellows,  by  one  who  could  make  allowances, 
who  saw  clearly,  judged  righteously  and  spake 
truly  and  without  fear.  They  were  spoken  by 
a  man  who  looked  upon  the  heart,  and  could  give 
a  right  estimate  of  the  lives  that  appeared  be¬ 
fore  him.  This  was  the  one  who  could  say  to 
the  bold,  confident  and  boastful  Peter:  “  Simon, 
I  have  prayed  for  thee,  that  thy  faith  fail  not  ” ; 
“  Peter,  the  cock  shall  not  crow  this  day,  before 
that  thou  shalt  thrice  deny  that  thou  knowest 
me.”  This  is  the  one  who  could  perceive  and 
mark  in  a  single  word  the  truculent  and  cow¬ 
ardly  character  of  Herod,  “  Go  ye  and  tell  that 
fox.”  This  is  the  one  who  clearly  knew  that 
those  Pharisees  and  rulers  who  should  pass  judg¬ 
ment  upon  him  and  condemn  him  to  death,  were 

4  Jno.  viii,  15-16. 

5  Jno.  xii,  47. 


FREE  FROM  CENSORIOUSNESS  249 

merely  whited  sepulchers  filled  with  the  bones  of 
the  dead.  This,  too,  is  the  one  who  could  dis¬ 
cern  in  the  woman  of  Samaria  a  woman  of  crass 
ignorance  and  acknowledged  infamy,  a  heart  that 
was  tender  and  honest,  and  a  jewel  for  the  crown 
of  the  King.  And  yet  this  is  the  same  one  who 
says  without  qualification  to  those  who  will  be 
his  disciples,  “  Judge  not.” 

Now  while  this  is  a  positive  command,  and  of 
very  wide  scope,  it  is  not  spoken  as  a  principle 
to  guide  governments,  organizations,  polities 
and  rightly  constituted  authorities,  for  Jesus  else¬ 
where  recognizes  the  authority  and  place  of 
Caesar  in  the  world;  but  it  is  spoken  to  that  vast 
mass  of  mankind  who  have  become  self-consti¬ 
tuted  judges  of  the  lives  of  their  brethren.  And 
never  was  a  word  of  counsel  more  needed,  for 
mankind  is  prone  to  separate,  divide,  classify, 
characterize  and  condemn  its  kind  in  walk  and 
talk  and  work  and  life. 

Indeed,  if  I  read  and  interpret  this  passage 
rightly  that  which  is  condemned  is  the  spirit  of 
criticism  and  censoriousness;  those  who  view  and 
judge  the  lives  of  their  fellows  not  for  the  sake 
of  warning,  profit  or  lesson  for  themselves  but 
for  the  sake  of  the  condemnation  of  the  brother. 
It  does  not  mean  that  we  shall  not  judge,  weigh, 
measure,  consider  the  words,  works,  and  lives  of 


250  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

the  men  about  us  that  we  may  take  knowledge  of 
them  either  for  profit  or  warning.  The  vicarious 
element  of  life  runs  through  all  forms  of  human 
existence.  Doubtless  many  a  man  has  saved  his 
own  ship  from  going  to  wrack  by  seeing  the  bones 
of  his  brother’s  craft,  lying  a  grim  warning  on  the 
perilous  coast.  Many  a  youth  has  been  saved 
from  bad  company  by  seeing  the  degrading  and 
destructive  influences  evil  companionship  has 
wrought  upon  good  manners.  Many  a  man  has 
been  saved  from  drink  by  witnessing  the  disgrace, 
shame  and  suffering  that  intemperance  hath 
wrought  in  his  unfortunate  comrade.  No!  we 
are  not  told  to  walk  with  our  eyes  shut  —  but 
with  our  mouths  shut;  and  while  we  may  and 
must  draw  conclusions  for  ourselves  from  the  ob¬ 
servation  of  the  lives  of  others,  we  are  not  called 
upon  to  publish  the  results  of  our  observation. 

The  occupation  of  public  censor  and  general 
critic  is  one  of  the  most  popular  callings  in  the 
world.  One  reason  for  its  popularity  doubtless 
arises  from  the  fact  that  it  requires  the  least  prep¬ 
aration  and  training  for  its  accomplishment. 
Most  lines  of  worthy  work  call  for  some  school¬ 
ing  or  training,  but  the  censorious  person  stands 
ready  to  pass  upon  the  greatest  works  and  the 
worthiest  workmen  without  any  knowledge  of  the 
subject  or  fitness  for  the  task.  Censoriousness 


FREE  FROM  CENSORIOUSNESS  251 

is  a  popular  occupation  because  it  is  so  easy  of 
attainment,  no  capital  is  required  for  entrance  to 
the  ranks  of  the  critic  of  others;  no  real  qualities 
of  manhood  or  womanhood.  Would  you  be  an 
artist  or  a  musician,  one  needs  patience;  a  sol¬ 
dier  must  have  courage;  a  farmer  must  have  in¬ 
dustry;  a  scholar,  diligence;  a  politician,  tact;  a 
doctor,  knowledge  or  skill  —  but  to  be  a  public 
critic  all  one  needs  is  the  brain  of  a  rat  and  the 
tongue  of  a  parrot  and  the  work  is  done  to  per¬ 
fection.  That  this  is  the  easiest  work  in  the 
world  is  evidenced  because  it  is  the  most  followed 
and  best  accomplished  by  the  indolent,  the  idler, 
the  looker-on;  these  hold  their  august  court  in 
the  corner  grocery  or  at  the  meeting  of  the 
streets,  and  amid  the  plaudits  of  the  ignorant 
audience  the  self-elected  judge  damns  a  deed  or 
blasts  a  character  with  the  readiness  and  indif¬ 
ference  of  the  boy  who  crushes  a  bird’s  egg. 
Nothing  is  too  sacred,  nothing  too  secret,  noth¬ 
ing  too  difficult,  nothing  too  pure  to  escape,  when 
once  this  habit  of  judging  others  has  laid  its  fatal 
spell  upon  the  individual.  Now  this  is  the  habit 
and  this  the  practice  that  the  Master  condemns 
and  forbids  in  this  passage. 

Avoid  falling  into  this  habit,  says  our  great 
Teacher,  for  it  is  fatal  to  the  self.  “  With  what 
judgment  ye  judge  ye  shall  be  judged,  and  with 


252  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

what  measure  ye  mete  it  shall  be  measured  unto 
you.”  If  we  only  could  be  made  to  realize  that 
this  is  absolutely  true,  more  of  us  would  resign 
from  the  office  of  judge.  And  this  is  absolutely 
true.  To  judge  another  in  word  or  deed  is  to 
give  our  own  standard  of  word  or  deed.  To 
measure  another  is  to  give  our  own  measure. 
This  is  true  in  those  simple,  morally  colorless 
judgments  which  we  daily  make.  Here  is  one 
who  says  of  a  picture,  “  Isn’t  that  fine,  it  suits 
me  to  a  fraction.”  In  this  estimate  the  man  has 
given  the  measure  and  quality  of  his  own  artistic 
taste.  There  is  standing  by,  perhaps,  a  real 
artist,  a  man  who  knows  pictures  and  the  true 
canons  of  art;  at  once  upon  hearing  this  so 
frankly  expressed  opinion  the  artist  knows  the 
artistic  measure  of  the  man  who  has  spoken;  he 
judged  himself  in  judging  the  picture.  I  knew 
of  an  instance  where  a  house  painter  was  paint¬ 
ing  a  house;  the  master  of  the  house  thinking 
that  it  might  lend  to  the  painter’s  pleasure  to  see 
a  fine  oil  painting  asked  him  to  step  in  and  view 
the  portrait.  The  painter  did  so  —  and  as  he 
stood  viewing  it  with  critical  eye,  the  owner  said, 
“  That  picture  cost  five  hundred  dollars.” 
“Goodness!”  exclaimed  the  painter,  “there’s 
not  ten  dollars’  worth  of  paint  on  it!  ”  This 
man’s  idea  of  art  was  paint.  Out  of  his  own 


FREE  FROM  CENSORIOUSNESS  253 
words  he  was  judged. 

Those  who  in  higher  things,  judge  of  a  man’s 
character,  his  motives,  his  life,  in  this  same  act 
of  judging  reveal  their  own  character,  motives, 
principles  of  life.  This  consequence  is  certain 
and  inevitable,  the  course  of  history  has  proven 
the  truth  of  the  Savior’s  words.  Those  unjust 
men  who  found  Socrates  guilty  of  perverting  the 
youths  and  polluting  the  State  and  who  condemned 
him  to  drink  the  hemlock,  in  their  judgment  of 
him  judged  themselves  and  have  been  condemned 
by  their  own  condemnation.  This  was  the 
thought  that  Socrates  had  when  he  said  to  those 
judges,  “  Be  sure  that  if  you  put  me  to  death, 
who  am  what  I  have  told  you  that  I  am,  you  will 
do  yourselves  more  harm  than  me.”  .  .  .  “  And 
now  I  shall  go  hence,  sentenced  by  you  to  death; 
and  they  will  go  hence,  sentenced  by  truth  to 
receive  the  penalty  of  wickedness  and  evil.” 

In  that  Persian  book,  “  The  Gulistan  ”  by 
Sa’di,  the  writer  gives  an  incident  illustrative  of 
this  same  judgment  of  Christ.  “  A  king  ordered 
an  innocent  person  to  be  put  to  death.  The  man 
said,  ‘  Seek  not  your  own  hurt  by  venting  any 
anger  you  may  entertain  against  me.’  The  king 
asked,  ‘How?’  He  replied,  ‘The  pain  of  this 
punishment  will  continue  with  me  for  a  moment, 
but  the  sin  of  it  will  endure  with  you  forever. 


254  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

The  period  of  this  life  passes  by  like  the  wind 
of  the  desert.  Joy  and  sorrow,  beauty  and  de¬ 
formity,  equally  pass  away.  The  tyrant  vainly 
thought  he  did  me  an  injury,  but  round  his  neck 
it  clung  and  passed  over  me.’  ” 

Says  Jesus,  in  his  teaching,  the  office  of  judge 
is  a  work  too  perilous  for  a  man  to  enter  upon. 

He  here  intimates  that  in  kind  and  degree  as 
we  judge  and  deal  with  our  brethren  so  shall  God 
deal  with  us.  The  measures  with  which  we 
measure  shall  measure  us,  the  scales  in  which 
we  weigh  the  lives  of  our  fellows  shall  be  the 
same  in  which  we  are  weighed.  This  is  the  plain 
meaning  of  the  principle,  “  Blessed  are  the  merci¬ 
ful  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy.”  This  is  the 
lesson  of  the  merciless  servant  of  the  parable  re¬ 
corded  in  Matt,  xviii,  21-35.  If  we  fully  real¬ 
ized  that  when  we  were  passing  upon  the  works, 
words  and  lives  of  our  fellow  beings  we  are  really 
passing  upon  ourselves,  how  just,  gentle  and  gen¬ 
erous  would  our  judgments  be,  for  every  man  is 
charitable  and  filled  with  excuses  for  his  own 
shortcomings. 

Continues  our  Teacher,  this  practice  of  judg¬ 
ing  the  lives  of  others  is  unfair  to  the  brother. 
“  Why  beholdest  thou  the  mote  that  is  in  thy 
brother’s  eye,  but  considerest  not  the  beam  that 
is  in  thine  own  eye?  ”  This  is  an  altogether  dis- 


FREE  FROM  CENSORIOUSNESS  255 


proportionate  and  unwarrantable  proceeding. 
We  are  so  anxious  to  remove  the  splinters, 
the  motes,  the  little  offenses,  from  the  brother’s 
life,  that  we  fail  to  remember  that  there  is 
a  greater  offense  in  our  own  lives.  This  term 
“  mote  ”  or  “  splinter  ”  plainly  points  the  com¬ 
mon  field  of  criticism  and  censoriousness.  It  is 
not  in  the  great  principles  of  life  that  we  com¬ 
monly  judge  the  brother  but  in  the  little  things, 
the  smaller  faults,  the  peccadillos.  We  are  re¬ 
minded  of  the  system  formerly  prevailing  in  some 
country  schools  and  perhaps  practiced  in  some 
places  to-day,  of  appointing  a  monitor,  usually 
the  good  boy,  to  observe  and  see  when  and  how 
the  scholars  transgress  the  laws  of  the  school. 
This  worthy  lad  keeps  his  holy  eye  open  for 
slight  offenses,  whispering,  passing  of  notes, 
copying  lessons  and  the  like;  these  offenses  he 
notes  and  anon  with  joy  reports  to  the  authori¬ 
ties.  The  result  is  the  cultivation  of  at  least  one 
prig  and  pious  fraud  within  that  schoolroom.  It 
is  the  school  monitor  system  as  applied  to  the 
world  against  which  Jesus  is  inveighing.  No 
man,  says  he,  has  the  right  to  assume  this  posi¬ 
tion,  because  every  man  has  a  beam,  a  whole  log 
of  wood,  an  entire  block  of  offenses  which  com¬ 
pletely  blind  his  own  vision.  Observe,  this  is  a 
general  declaration,  and  applies  distributively  to 


256  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

every  man.  Now  the  man  who  himself  is  thus 
disqualified  is  in  no  position  to  judge  justly  of 
his  brother’s  slight  offenses.  What  man  is  there 
who  understands  the  motives,  the  circumstances 
of  the  life,  the  hereditary  weaknesses  of  his 
brother? 

No  man  comprehends  the  life  of  another  in  the 
complete  round  of  its  circle  —  we  see  some  little 
arc  of  the  life  as  indicated  in  a  word  or  a  deed, 
but  our  geometry  is  not  skilled  enough  to  find 
the  center  of  the  circle  from  that  arc.  Here, 
for  instance,  is  a  lad  who  has  gone  astray,  who 
is  walking  the  -wayward  path.  Listen  to  the 
judgment  of  that  lad’s  life  from  the  lips  of  out¬ 
siders;  they  unqualifiedly  criticise  and  condemn 
him  —  they  judge  the  thing  in  itself  and  unre¬ 
lated  to  the  lad.  Bring  this  same  waywardness, 
these  same  facts,  to  the  notice  of  a  father  or  a 
mother  of  the  boy,  and  either  of  these  will  judge 
with  charity  and  with  leniency  —  he  knows,  she 
knows,  how  much  of  the  self  is  appearing  in  the 
*  child  —  and  love  sits  on  the  bench  of  justice. 
Thank  God,  we  are  not  to  be  judged  by  our  fel¬ 
lows,  nor  yet  by  the  world  —  but  that  judgment 
is  to  be  given  by  a  Father  who  knows  the  entire 
round  of  the  life,  and  Love  sits  upon  the  judg¬ 
ment  seat  of  the  universe. 

Moreover,  such  criticism  and  judgment  of  our 


FREE  FROM  CENSORIOUSNESS  257 


brethren  is  an  offense  against  the  truth.  It 
assumes  that  which  is  not  true  —  a  clear  eye,  a 
blameless  life,  a  position  of  superiority  in  the  one 
who  would  play  the  judge,  a  catalogue  of  qualities 
true  of  no  mortal  man. 

Instead  of  sitting  in  judgment  on  the  conduct 
of  others,  our  Savior  points  out  something  more 
important  and  pressing  for  us  to  do.  In  short, 
to  hold  to  the  figure  of  the  eye,  get  busy  with 
your  own  eyes.  I  presume  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  a  physically  perfect  eye.  Helmholz,  who  was 
familiar  with  this  common  fact,  once  said  that  he 
could  easily  conceive  how  the  organ  of  the  eye 
could  be  made  a  far  more  perfect  instrument  of 
sight  than  it  is.  Here  the  great  Spiritual  Oc- 
culist  tells  us,  in  unqualified  terms,  that  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  a  spiritually  perfect  eye.  There 
is  a  beam  in  the  eye  of  every  man,  is  his  uncon¬ 
ditioned  statement,  and  man’s  first  and  great 
business  is  to  correct  and  perfect  his  own  sight. 
His  strong  ironical  way  of  putting  it  is,  “  Then 
shalt  thou  see  clearly  to  cast  out  the  mote  out 
of  thy  brother’s  eye”;  his  plain  implication  is, 
u  When  thou  dost  see  clearly,  then  thou  shalt  un¬ 
derstand  that  to  assume  such  a  position  would  be 
to  become  a  hypocrite,  and  thou  wilt  leave  the 
correction  of  the  eyes  of  thy  brethren  to  the  care 
and  correction  of  the  Great  Physician.”  Our  na- 


25 8  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

tures  are  sinful  and  imperfect,  we  are  all  stricken 
with  a  moral  blindness.  Until  this  condition  is 
removed  we  are  in  no  position  to  judge  our 
brethren,  and  when  it  is  removed  we  will  have 
no  wish  to  judge  them. 

History  is  filled  with  instances  of  those  who  re¬ 
vealed  their  moral  blindness  by  sitting  in  judg¬ 
ment  of  their  fellows.  Witness  the  blindness  of 
the  Pharisees,  who  cast  out  the  man  born  blind 
because  he  believed  in  the  Physician  who  had 
healed  him.  Hear  Christ’s  answer  to  these  very 
Pharisees  when  they  asked,  “  Are  we  blind 
also?” — asked  sarcastically,  asked  with  a  sneer, 
asked  in  derision,  but  answered  by  the  Christ, 
frankly,  plainly,  truly:  “If  ye  were  blind,  ye 
should  have  no  sin:  but  now  ye  say,  we  see;  there¬ 
fore  your  sin  remaineth.”  6  Behold  the  moral 
and  spiritual  blindness  of  those  rulers  of  the 
Jews,  who  counted  the  best  citizen  of  Palestine, 
the  most  worthy  and  useful  member  of  their  na¬ 
tion,  as  meriting  crucifixion.  And  from  that  day 
to  this  how  history  has  recorded  and  revealed  the 
contemptible  conceit  and  the  stone-blindness  of 
almost  every  court  of  religious  inquiry,  every  in¬ 
quisition,  and  trial  for  faith  that  has  sat  upon  a 
bench  in  condemnation  of  its  brethren.  We 
might  make  bold  to  say,  that  the  roll  call  of  the 


6  Jno.  ix,  41. 


FREE  FROM  CENSORIOUSNESS  259 


honorable  and  faithful  in  the  church  to-day  is 
the  list  of  the  condemned  and  outcast  of  yester¬ 
day.  At  all  events,  that  every  man  has  a  beam 
in  his  eye  and  is  in  no  position  to  rightly  judge 
his  neighbor,  history  without  contradiction  evi¬ 
dences.  There  has  been  only  one  without  sin, 
only  one  with  the  spiritually  perfect  vision,  only 
one  fit  to  judge.  What  was  his  attitude  toward 
a  palpable,  proven  sinner?  “And  the  scribes 
and  the  Pharisees  brought  unto  him  a  woman 
taken  in  adultery,”  7  and  Jesus  said,  “  He  that  is 
without  sin  among  you,  let  him  first  cast  a  stone 
at  her.”  And  the  only  one  without  sin,  the  only 
one  fit  to  cast  the  stone  at  her  said,  “  Neither  do 
I  condemn  thee:  go,  and  sin  no  more.”  The 
plain  teaching  of  this  passage  is  that  we  are  not 
to  take  such  exact  notice  of  our  brother’s  fault, 
but  to  be  more  careful  in  noting  our  own  faults. 
We  are  here  taught  the  value  of  self-examination. 
Put  over  against,  “  With  what  judgment  ye 
judge  (another)  ye  shall  be  judged,”  the  counsel 
of  Paul,  “  For  if  we  would  judge  ourselves,  we 
should  not  be  judged,”  8  and  we  see  the  only  safe 
course  for  a  man. 

Says  the  moralist  Seneca,  “  It  is  dangerous  for 
a  man  too  suddenly  or  too  easily  to  believe  him- 

7  Jno.  viii,  3-11. 

8  I  Cor.  xi,  31, 


26o  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


self.  Wherefore  let  us  examine,  watch,  observe 
and  inspect  our  own  hearts,  for  we  ourselves  are 
our  own  greatest  flatterers.  We  should  every 
night  call  ourselves  to  an  account.  Our  vices  will 
abate  of  themselves  if  they  be  brought  every  day 
to  the  shrift.”  9 

What  an  absurd,  inconsistent  and  wicked  thing 
to  see  a  man  sitting  in  judgment  of  his  fellows 
in  those  matters  wherein  he  himself  is  guilty. 
“  Thou  therefore  that  teachest  another,  teachest 
thou  not  thyself?  thou  that  preachest  that  a  man 
should  not  steal,  dost  thou  steal?  thou  that  say- 
est  that  a  man  should  not  commit  adultery,  dost 
thou  commit  adultery?  thou  that  abhorrest  idols, 
dost  thou  commit  sacrilege?  thou  that  makest  thy 
boast  of  the  law,  through  breaking  the  law  dis- 
honorest  thou  God?”10  Answer  this  catechism 
with  thy  deeds  and  thy  life,  an  thou  canst;  pass 
this  examination,  for  the  bench,  if  thou  art  able 
—  then  shalt  thou  be  saved  from  that  greatest  of 
offenses,  hypocrisy.  “  Woe  unto  you  scribes  and 
Pharisees,  hypocrites,”  is  an  oft  repeated  warn¬ 
ing,  which  is  meant  to  ring  through  the  years  of 
all  time,  a  terror  to  the  critical  and  the  censori¬ 
ous,  a  doom  to  the  self-elected  judge. 

There  is  a  corollary  attaching  to  this  princi- 

9  “  The  Morals  of  Seneca.” 

10  Rom.  ii,  21-23. 


FREE  FROM  CENSORIOUSNESS  261 


pie  which  the  Master  has  just  propounded; 
namely,  be  tolerant  and  charitable.  As  the  Scotch 
say,  every  man  must  “  dree  his  own  weird,”  and, 
runs  the  Scripture,  every  soul  must  work  out  his 
own  salvation;  this  is  the  privilege  and  this  is 
the  duty  of  living.  The  consequence  is,  as  this 
is  every  man’s  individual  right,  so  there  is  an  ob¬ 
ligation  on  the  part  of  every  other  not  to  inter¬ 
fere  with  but  to  help  his  brother  in  this  life  work. 
My  prime  duty  is  to  attend  to  my  own  business 
and  to  have  charity  toward  others  who  are  seek¬ 
ing  to  do  the  same. 

The  principle  underlying  the  text,  “  Am  I  my 
brother’s  keeper?  ”  we  believe  has  been  made  to 
work  overtime,  and  has  resulted  in  our  judging 
others  and  in  our  insisting  in  plucking  the  splin¬ 
ters  from  their  eyes,  when  we  had  been  better 
engaged  in  looking  after  our  own  lives.  As 
much  as  we  regret  to  acknowledge  it,  it  is  not 
altogether  untrue,  that  Christian  people  and  the 
Christian  Church  are  particularly  inclined  toward 
fault-finding,  criticism  and  censoriousness. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


LIVE  FOR  THE  BEST  WITHIN  YOU 
Matt,  vii,  6 

JESUS  was  prone  to  utter  hard  sayings,  to  de¬ 
clare  startling  things,  to  teach  the  paradox¬ 
ical,  to  command  the  apparently  impossible. 
Listen  as  he  says  that  except  a  man  hate  his  father 
and  mother,  brothers  and  sisters,  wife  and  chil¬ 
dren,  he  cannot  be  his  disciple;  as  he  declares  that 
a  man  must  lose  his  life  to  save  it;  as  he  com¬ 
mands,  “Be  ye  therefore  perfect”;  as  he  coun¬ 
sels,  “  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon 
the  earth.”  Surely  these  are  hard  sayings,  para¬ 
doxes,  startling  teachings  and  commands  seem¬ 
ingly  impossible. 

These  utterances  are  not  void  of  meaning  but 
the  meaning  does  not  appear  upon  the  surface. 
It  was  doubtless  his  purpose  that  thought  would 
reveal  or  time  would  disclose  the  hidden,  fuller 
meaning  of  these  teachings  —  as  one  must  dig 
for  gold,  or  dive  for  pearls,  or  work  for  anything 
that  is  truly  worth  having. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  he  did  not  intend  to 
teach  the  esoteric  or  the  mysterious  —  but  he 


FOR  THE  BEST  WITHIN  YOU  263 


sought  to  present  before  men’s  minds  plain  and 
practical  truths  in  forceful  sentences.  Such  an 
utterance  is  this  contained  in  the  words,  “  Give 
not  that  which  is  holy  unto  the  dogs,  neither  cast 
your  pearls  before  swine,”  etc. 

The  common  interpretation  men  have  given  to 
this  passage  is  that  the  Gospel  truth  is  not  to  be 
given  to  the  unappreciative,  the  unreceptive,  the 
brutish,  but  is  to  be  reserved  for  the  chosen  few 
who  are  able  to  understand  it.  With  this  inter¬ 
pretation  we  cannot  agree,  because  it  is  too  nar¬ 
row;  it  regards  what  may  be  a  fruit  of  the  text 
but  does  not  go  to  the  root  of  the  text;  again  we 
cannot  agree  with  it,  because  it  seems  to  us  to 
be  opposed  to  the  very  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  for 
by  its  application  no  man  would  be  accounted 
worthy  to  receive  these  high  and  heavenly  truths 
—  for  no  man  is  able  rightly  to  appreciate  them. 
Indeed,  the  great  business  of  the  Church  is  to  go 
among  the  base,  the  dull,  the  unappreciative  and 
to  make  them  to  see  and  to  know  and  to  under¬ 
stand.  By  this  interpretation  Jesus  would  never 
have  come  into  the  world  —  for  surely  the  Pearl 
of  heaven  was  despised,  rejected  and  trampled 
under  foot  of  men. 

But  even  if  one  does  not  go  so  far  as  to  reject 
this  common  interpretation,  yet  this  interpretation 
does  not  exhaust  the  full  teaching  here  given. 


264  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

In  this  text  there  is  a  principle,  broad,  deep  and 
far-reaching.  So  if  we  take  the  teaching  as  ap¬ 
plying  to  Life,  for  Life  is  the  great  theme  of 
this  entire  discourse,  the  wider  interpretation 
will  include  the  narrower,  and  the  more  progres¬ 
sive  view  will  embrace  that  which  has  been  held. 

The  great  principle  of  this  text  is  very  plain  — 
it  is  here  stated  in  a  negative  form  —  put  it  into 
the  positive  form  and  it  reads  “  Put  things  to 
their  proper  and  appropriate  uses  like  wise 
men  ” !  A  place  for  everything  and  everything 
in  its  place  is  a  principle  that  has  its  warrant  and 
proof  in  the  constitution  of  nature.  In  nature 

i 

we  observe  that  everything  has  a  place,  a  use,  a 
function  and  a  right  relation.  From  this  arises 
the  order  and  intelligibility  of  the  world,  and 
upon  this  depends  the  possibility  and  utility  of 
science  and  the  entire  round  of  human  knowledge. 
The  very  word  “  nature  ”  speaks  to  us  of  that 
which  is  orderly,  regular  and  constant.  The  term 
natural  law,  which  we  use  so  frequently,  rests 
upon  the  fact  of  things  having  places  and  uses 
—  and  of  their  being  in  the  right  relations  to  the 
sum  total  of  created  entities. 

We  find  that  the  world  is  a  system  interrelated 
and  interdependent,  and  there  is  no  more  inter¬ 
esting  or  profitable  employ  for  the  powers  and 
faculties  of  men  than  to  discover  the  place,  re- 


FOR  THE  BEST  WITHIN  YOU  265 

lation  and  uses  of  the  multitude  of  forces  and 
things  which  come  under  the  observation  of  man 
This  is  the  great  business  of  science.  Every  part 
of  the  sphere  bears  some  relation  to  every  other 
part,  atom  is  related  to  atom,  force  to  force;  and 
the  activities  and  interrelations  of  these  are  found 
to  be  capable  of  expression  in  definite,  constant, 
unchangeable  formulae  called  laws.  The  teleo¬ 
logical  argument  of  theism,  for  the  presence  in 
the  universe  of  an  intelligence  capable  of  account¬ 
ing  for  this  order  and  adaptation  of  means  to 
ends,  is  based  upon  the  principle  of  this  text. 

This  teleological  argument,  however  much  crit¬ 
icised  and  contested,  will  ever  be  acceptable  and 
efficient  as  evidencing  an  intelligence  back  of  the 
intelligible,  because  its  facts  are  so  apparent  to  the 
common  observer  and  its  principles  so  in  accord 
with  our  common  life. 

Illustrations  of  adaptations  and  fitness  of 
means  to  ends,  as  evidencing  this  principle  of 
place  and  function  in  the  world  of  nature,  might 
be  adduced  without  limitation,  but  it  is  a  matter 
familiar  to  the  minds  of  those  who  have  studied 
the  subject  even  a  little. 

It  is  this  same  principle  which  underlies  the 
argument  of  Paul  to  the  Corinthian  church,  and 
of  Menenius  to  the  Roman  mob,  in  the  parable 
of  the  belly  and  the  members.  Says  the  Apostle, 


266  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


“  For  the  body  is  not  one  member  but  many. 
.  .  .  But  now  hath  God  set  the  members  every 
one  of  them  in  the  body,  as  it  hath  pleased 
him.”  1  Therefore,  we  say  that  the  very  idea 
of  law  and  of  nature,  of  system  and  of  a  uni¬ 
verse,  rests  upon  the  principle  implied  in  this  text, 
that  everything  has  a  place  and  a  proper  and  ap¬ 
propriate  use,  in  the  world  which  God  has  made. 

It  is  further  taught  in  this  text  that  if  things 
are  not  put  to  their  proper  use,  place  and  rela¬ 
tion,  they  are  perverted,  prostituted,  misused  and 
so  must  suffer  the  consequence  of  everything  that 
is  out  of  order. 

And  here  we  detect  a  very  plain  divergence 
between  the  world  of  nature  and  the  world  of 
men.  In  nature  things  cannot,  rightly  speak¬ 
ing,  get  out  of  place  nor  break  law.  In 
nature  the  stars  in  their  courses,  the  forces 
in  their  paths,  the  atoms  in  their  affinities, 
are  held  in  by  bit  and  bridle,  are  restrained 
and  controlled  by  the  cords  and  bands  of 
their  being.  No  force  ever  contravened  law,  no 
atom  ever  left  its  place  or  forgot  its  function; 
as  one  has  said,  “  An  atom  out  of  its  place  and 
the  universe  would  be  changed.”  It  is  because 
of  their  fidelity,  to  personify  nature,  to  the 
law  of  their  being,  that  “  the  heavens  declare  the 


1 1  Cor.  xii,  14  and  18. 


FOR  THE  BEST  WITHIN  YOU  267 


glory  of  God  and  the  firmament  sheweth  his 
handiwork.”  But  when  we  come  to  the  world  of 
man,  we  see  a  different  thing  —  man  is  endowed 
with  the  royal  gift  of  personality,  he  is  a  free 
moral  agent,  he  has  will  and  can  choose.  Man 
can  transgress  law,  violate  law,  refuse  to  obey 
law;  that  is,  he  can  refuse  to  accept  the  higher 
law  of  his  well-being  and  choose  to  follow  the 
law  of  ill-being.  Therefore  it  is  that  man  is  a 
subject  fit  to  be  counseled,  commanded,  advised; 
therefore  the  direction,  “  Give  not  that  which  is 
holy  unto  the  dogs,”  etc.,  is  peculiarly  applicable 
to  man.  And  it  is  from  the  viewpoint  of  man 
and  of  personality  that  Christ  is  speaking. 

The  great  business  of  a  man  is  to  know  him¬ 
self,  as  the  philosophers  discovered  ages  ago; 
now  if  man  can  discover  the  meaning  of  life,  the 
purpose  of  faculties,  powers,  organs  and  func¬ 
tions  —  if  he  can  know  the  right  use  of  himself 
in  part  and  in  toto  —  then  the  business  of  a  wise 
man  is  to  make  that  right  use  of  himself.  And 
this  is  the  heart  of  the  counsel  here  given. 

Assuming  that  right  place  and  use  of  man  in 
his  various  parts  can  be  discovered,  and  this  is 
the  underlying  idea  of  this  entire  sermon  of  the 
Master,  then  it  follows  that  nothing  can  be  put 
to  a  better  use  than  that  for  which  it  was  in¬ 
tended;  and  nothing  ought  to  be  put  to  a  baser 


268  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


use  than  that  for  which  it  was  intended.  On  this 
last  inference  the  emphasis  is  here  laid  by  Christ. 
This  is  to  show  lack  of  wisdom,  it  is  to  give  that 
which  is  holy  unto  the  dogs,  and  this  ever  entails 
loss. 

Jesus  teaches  elsewhere  that  he  came  “  to  seek 
and  to  save  that  which  was  lost  ” —  through 
violation  of  this  very  precept.  Now  “  loss  ”  or 
“  lost  ”  is  a  word  of  varying  degrees,  as  Jesus 
uses  and  illustrates  the  term.  It  is  a  relative 
term,  and  one  that  varies  with  varying  persons. 
In  one  sense  “  lost”  means  out  of  possession;  so 
we  commonly  use  the  term  with  respect  to  things, 
and  so  Christ  used  the  term  with  respect  to  per¬ 
sons  —  this  he  illustrated  by  the  woman  who  had 
lost  one  of  the  coins  with  which  she  was  wont 
to  adorn  her  head.  It  was  out  of  her  possession 
and  not  in  the  place  it  should  be  and  so  she 
searched  the  house  until  she  found  it.  “  Lost  ” 
again  means  out  of  position;  those  sheep,  which 
in  the  night  should  be  enfolded  in  the  fold  under 
the  care  and  protection  of  the  Shepherd,  were  not 
in  their  proper  place,  wandering  abroad  in  the 
wilderness,  in  the  cold  and  in  danger;  so  the 
Good  Shepherd  seeks  the  sheep  that  he  may 
bring  them  back  to  their  rightful  place  by  the 
Shepherd’s  side. 

“Lost”  again  means  out  of  right  relation; 


FOR  THE  BEST  WITHIN  YOU  269 


this  is  illustrated  by  the  parable  of  the  Lost  Son; 
that  son  was  out  of  right  relation  to  the  Father 
and  to  his  house,  when  he  was  in  the  far  country 
and  among  strangers  engaged  in  the  humiliating 
and  degrading  occupation  of  feeding  swine. 
When  he  came  back  to  the  Father’s  heart  and  to 
the  Father’s  home,  he  was  “  found,”  because  he 
had  returned  to  the  right  relation  to  the  Father. 
This  parable,  this  meaning  of  the  term  “  lost,” 
is  particularly  applicable  to  the  realm  of  the 
personal. 

Now  to  be  out  of  possession,  out  of  position, 
out  of  right  relation,  is  inappropriate,  offensive 
to  good  taste  and,  in  the  realm  of  the  personal, 
is  perilous  to  a  degree.  The  idea  of  inappropri¬ 
ateness  is  plainly  implied  in  the  words,  “  Give  not 
that  which  is  holy  unto  the  dogs,  neither  cast  your 
pearls  before  swine.” 

It  is  the  same  idea  that  is  contained  in  the 
proverb,  “  As  a  jewel  of  gold  in  a  swine’s  snout, 
so  is  a  fair  woman  which  is  without  discretion.” 

That  which  is  bad  taste  and  inappropriate  may 
be  hard  to  define  in  words,  but  it  is  something 
that  is  immediately  perceived  by  a  cultivated  sen¬ 
sibility.  I  knew  of  a  man  who  was  a  collector 
of  old  furniture;  once  he  found  a  beautiful  ma¬ 
hogany  sideboard,  used  by  its  present  owners  for 
a  hencoop.  His  sense  of  propriety  was  plainly 


27o  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

offended  that  so  beautiful  and  so  useful  an  arti¬ 
cle  should  be  put  to  such  ignoble  uses.  How 
would  an  artist  be  offended  by  discovering  a  gen¬ 
uine  Gainsborough  or  Reynolds  painting,  adorn¬ 
ing  a  stable!  What  a  misuse  it  would  be  of  the 
family  jewels,  for  the  son  to  take  them  from  their 
sacred  keeping  and  to  give  them  for  the  adorn¬ 
ing  of  an  harlot!  Now  it  is  this  same  good  taste 
that  is  offended,  and  this  same  base  and  frivolous 
character  that  is  revealed  by  the  man  who  will 
cast  his  pearls  before  swine,  but  now  accompa¬ 
nied  by  the  sad  consequence  of  ruthless  destruc¬ 
tion  of  the  foolish  man  who  will  dare  such  a 
thing. 

Jesus  is  here  speaking  to  men  and  speaking  of 
man,  and  he  teaches  in  this  text  that  there  is  in 
every  man  that  which  is  holy.  Is  this  not  em¬ 
phasized  in  all  the  Scripture?  Man  is  made  by 
God,  made  in  His  image,  made  little  less  than 
divine,  crowned  with  glory  and  honor,  made 
capable  of  being  a  king.  The  Spirit  of  God 
dwelleth  within  man  and  so  man  is  a  holy  being. 
While  things  may  be  called  holy,  by  an  accommo¬ 
dation  of  terms,  only  persons  are  truly  holy,  for 
holiness  is  a  quality  of  will  and  of  character,  holi¬ 
ness  is  an  attribute  of  personality  alone.  We 
speak  of  the  Holy  Land;  why  is  this  called  holy? 
Only  because  of  the  holy  persons,  the  devout, 


FOR  THE  BEST  WITHIN  YOU  271 


noble,  god-like  men  and  women  that  have  lived 
there.  We  speak  of  the  “  holy  place,”  which  is 
the  temple.  There  is  no  place  as  such,  which 
is  holy;  it  is  only  because  of  its  holy  associations 
and  uses,  only  because  of  the  holy  Spirit  which 
inhabits  that  temple.  This  is  likewise  true  of 
those  books  which  we  have  called  the  Holy 
Bible,  it  is  holy  because  of  the  holy  Persons 
which  it  reveals,  true  because  of  the  holy  lives 
which  it  makes.  Yes,  the  teaching  here  and  else¬ 
where  in  Scripture  is  that  man  is  a  holy  being  — 
and  within  every  man  there  is  that  which  must  be 
called  holy. 

There  is  a  pearl  in  every  life.  It  was  this 
new  idea  which  Jesus  introduced  in  his  religion. 
In  former  times  certain  men  and  certain  classes 
were  counted  worthy,  and  certain  men  and  cer¬ 
tain  classes  were  counted  worthless.  Jesus  would 
sweep  away  this  old,  false  notion,  and  reveal  that 
God  is  the  Maker  of  them  all,  and  every  person 
is  capable  of  immortality.  It  was  this  teaching 
that  introduced  a  new  conception  of  man  and 
gave  a  new  dignity  to  life.  How  often  has  this 
fact  of  a  pearl  in  every  life  been  revealed  in  the 
basest  and  lowest  of  men.  Here  is  a  dissolute 
worthless  fellow,  who  is  a  shame  to  his  family 
and  a  menace  to  the  community,  in  a  moment, 
in  an  hour  of  peril  he  reveals  a  courage,  a  self- 


272  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

sacrificing  spirit,  a  willingness  to  lay  down  his  life 
to  save  others  if  you  will,  from  a  burning  build¬ 
ing  or  from  a  stranded  ship  —  and  the  pearl 
within  him  stands  revealed. 

These  are  facts  of  common  life  and  experi¬ 
ence,  these  are  elements  made  use  of  by  novelist 
and  dramatist.  Charles  Dickens,  in  the  best 
novel  he  ever  wrote,  “  The  Tale  of  Two  Cities,” 
has  made  most  excellent  use  of  such  a  character. 
Sidney  Carton  was  a  prodigal,  profligate,  base 
fellow;  a  burden  to  himself,  a  disgrace  to  his 
associates.  What  good  was  there  in  him? 
What  worth  in  his  life?  And  yet,  such  as  he 
was,  on  occasion  he  was  capable  of  a  friendship 
which  enabled  hi,m  to  renounce  his  love  for  the 
sake  of  his  friend,  capable  of  a  devotion  which 
led  him  to  the  guillotine,  a  vicarious  sacrifice,  to 
save  another’s  life.  Most  dramatic,  most  touch¬ 
ing,  but  most  true.  Even  base  men  are  capable 
of  holy  deeds.  Why,  it  is  this  very  belief  that 
souls  are  pearls  and  lives  are  holy  that  gives  the 
spring  and  spur  to  missionary  enterprise;  it  is  the 
recognition  of  this  fact  that  inspires  the  lovers 
of  their  kind  to  go  into  the  slums  and  sinks  of 
the  city  and  save  those  whom  the  multitude  of 
men  are  passing  by  as  worthless  and  lost. 

That  which  is  undertaken  by  men  as  a  work 
of  rescue  is  here  urged  by  the  Master  as  a  work 


FOR  THE  BEST  WITHIN  YOU  273 


of  prevention.  Says  he,  that  man  who  does  not 
live  for  the  highest  and  best  within  him  is  guilty 
of  giving  the  holy  unto  the  dogs  and  of  casting 
pearls  before  swine.  Life  was  intended  for  the 
highest  uses,  the  man  who  perverts  these  uses 
prostitutes  this  life.  It  is  not  necessary  for  us 
in  this  case  to  go  aside  as  so  many  have  done 
and  seek  to  specify  just  who  are  meant  by 
“  swine  ”  and  by  “  dogs.”  It  does  not  neces¬ 
sarily  apply  to  Jews  nor  to  Gentiles,  to  Protes¬ 
tants  nor  to  Romanists.  The  emphasis  of  this 
utterance  is  not  laid  on  the  unworthiness  of  those 
to  whom  the  precious  things  are  so  thoughtlessly 
given,  but  on  the  thoughtlessness,  the  unwisdom 
and  the  madness  of  the  man  who  does  not  recog¬ 
nize  his  own  worth,  of  the  person  who  is  not 
aware  of  his  high  calling  of  God.  Our  attention 
is  fixed  on  the  foolish  fellow  who  is  so  ready  to 
squander,  to  throw  away  the  very  richest  and  best 
he  has  even  before  those  who  are  incapable,  un¬ 
appreciative  and  brutish.  This  is  Christ’s  call  to 
a  man  to  realize  his  nobility;  to  know  that  he  is 
born  for  the  purple,  and  is  destined  to  be  a  king. 
The  world  would  make  a  man  believe  that  he  is 
fatherless,  friendless,  poor  and  worthless  —  un¬ 
til  it  brings  the  man  to  its  own  low  level.  The 
Christ  would  have  each  man  know  that  he  is  the 
son  of  a  king,  richly  endued  and  endowed  and 


274  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

capable  of  great  things.  Man  is  gifted  with  a 
wondrous  body  capable  of  great  perfection,  of 
high  and  holy  uses.  The  hands,  the  feet,  the 
eyes,  the  lips  of  the  Master  were  such  as  we  have, 
but  we  count  them  holy  because  of  their  blessed 
employ.  The  body  likewise  is  capable  of  great 
perversion  and  misuse.  Those  East  Indian 
fanatics,  who  in  their  devotion  to  a  false  religion 
bind  their  arms,  their  feet,  their  members,  until 
they  become  atrophied  and  dead  to  use,  sadly  mis¬ 
use  the  body.  That  fair  young  girl,  the  most 
beautiful  and  soul-stirring  of  God’s  creations,  who 
devotes  her  body  to  the  service  of  lust  —  has  even 
according  to  our  common  proverb,  “  gone  to  the 
dogs,”  and  abused  a  holy  possession. 

The  mind,  the  gift  of  God,  is  capable  of  know¬ 
ing  the  will  of  God,  of  serving  the  brother,  of  be¬ 
coming  the  glory  of  its  possessor  —  but  it,  too, 
may  be  perverted,  abused,  degraded.  Oh,  what  a 
sad  sight  to  see  the  human  heart,  fit  dwelling-place 
for  the  true,  the  beautiful  and  the  good,  capable  of 
housing  God  Himself,  thrown  open  to  the  recep¬ 
tion  and  filling  of  the  world.  Heart-breaking 
sight  it  is  to  see  bodies,  minds,  hearts,  lives,  ca¬ 
pable  of  heavenly  and  holy  things,  despised  and 
devoted  to  base  and  ignoble  uses.  Do  not  be 
guilty  of  such  folly  and  unwisdom,  for  the  life  is 
wrecked  and  the  man  is  destroyed  who  does  it. 


FOR  THE  BEST  WITHIN  YOU  275 


This  principle  finds  its  concrete  illustration  in 
Christ’s  most  perfect  parable,  that  of  The  Lost 
Son  —  the  story  of  that  young  man  who  bore  his 
Father’s  image,  who  was  competent  to  be  his 
Father’s  associate,  companion,  friend,  son;  who 
was  capable  of  knowing  his  Father’s  mind  and 
working  his  Father’s  will,  whose  right  place  and 
relation  was  in  his  Father’s  home  and  under  his 
Father’s  love;  who  was  privileged  to  honor,  pleas¬ 
ure  and  fellowship,  yet  who,  because  he  was  un¬ 
appreciative  of  the  riches  that  were  his,  dead  to 
the  opportunities  that  were  offered  to  him,  asks 
for  his  patrimony,  goes  into  a  far  country,  wastes 
his  substance  in  riotous  living,  until  he  comes  to 
be  a  caretaker  of  swine. 

Such  a  man,  Jesus  teaches  us  in  this  text,  is  un¬ 
appreciative  of  himself,  of  his  place,  power,  pos¬ 
sibilities,  worth.  These  are  like  the  “  profane  ” 
Esau,  who  for  a  mess  of  pottage  sold  his  birth¬ 
right.  These  are  they  who  forget  what  manner 
of  Spirit  they  are  of.  This  text  is  Christ’s  call 
to  self-appreciation. 

Such  a  man,  the  Master  teaches,  is  unappreci¬ 
ated  among  the  dogs  and  the  swine.  He  may 
have  engaging  manners,  a  keen  intellect,  a  sensi¬ 
tive  nature,  and  cultivated  powers,  but  what  does 
the  low  and  worthless  company  care  for  these? 
These  are  they  who  regard  neither  mind,  spirit 


2 76  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


nor  character  in  a  man  —  they  are  materialists, 
sensualists,  slaves  of  the  flesh;  they  seek  not  him 
but  his;  the  most  worthy  and  accomplished  man 
to  such  is  only  a  tree  to  be  robbed  of  its  fruit,  a 
purse  to  be  relieved  of  its  coin,  a  hive  to  be  rifled 
of  its  sweets  —  and  when  they  have  possessed 
themselves  of  those  goods  he  bears,  the  man  him¬ 
self  is  cast  out,  with  heartless  jest  and  ruthless 
hand,  to  be  trampled  upon  and  to  perish  as  he 
may. 

These  obtuse,  unappreciative  and  insensible 
creatures  have  been  limned  in  Rudyard  Kipling’s 
striking  and  shocking  verse,  “  The  Vampire  ” : 

“  A  fool  there  was  and  he  made  his  prayer 
(Even  as  you  and  I) 

To  a  rag  and  a  bone  and  a  hank  of  hair 
(We  called  her  the  woman  who  did  not  care), 

But  the  fool  he  called  her  his  lady  fair 
(Even  as  you  and  I). 

O  the  years  we  waste,  and  the  tears  we  waste, 

And  the  work  of  our  head  and  hand, 

Belong  to  the  woman  who  did  not  know 
(And  now  we  know  that  she  never  could  know) 

And  did  not  understand. 

•  •••••  •••• 

The  fool  was  stripped  to  his  foolish  hide 
(Even  as  you  and  I!) 

Which  she  might  have  seen  when  she  threw  him  aside — 

(But  it  isn’t  on  record  the  lady  tried) 

So  some  of  him  lived  but  the  most  of  him  died — 

(Even  as  you  and  I!) 


FOR  THE  BEST  WITHIN  YOU  277 


And  it  isn’t  the  shame,  and  it  isn’t  the  blame 
That  stings  like  a  white  hot  brand. 

It’s  coming  to  know  that  she  never  knew  why 
(Seeing  at  last  she  could  never  know  why) 

And  never  could  understand. 

How  pitiable  it  is,  to  see  a  soul  capable  of  such 
high  things  fallen  to  so  low  an  estate,  through 
failure  to  heed  the  warning  of  the  Christ,  through 
disregard  of  the  high  calling  of  God.  How  many 
verifications  have  there  been  in  life  of  the  Mas¬ 
ter’s  prediction,  “  Lest  haply  they  trample  them 
under  their  feet  and  turn  and  rend  you.” 

Francois  Villon  is  a  classic  case  in  point;  poet, 
litterateur,  soldier,  thief  and  murderer;  capable 
of  companying  with  the  world’s  highest  and  best, 
choosing  his  fellowship  with  the  lowest  and  basest 
of  men,  a  figure  dramatic  and  dreadful  —  a  true 
type  of  a  melancholy  class.  None  of  God’s  crea¬ 
tures  can  rise  so  high  as  man  and  none  can  fall 
so  low. 

In  short,  in  this  text  Jesus  urges:  Do  not  de¬ 
spise  thyself;  do  not  estimate  thyself  lightly;  do 
not  let  another  count  thee  of  little  worth;  “  Hold 
that  fast  which  thou  hast,  that  no  man  take  thy 
crown.” 

“  Beloved  now  are  we  the  sons  of  God;  and  it 
doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be:  Every  man 
that  hath  this  hope  in  him  purifieth  himself  even 
as  he  is  pure.” 


278  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

Wise  and  blessed  is  that  man  who  hears  and 
heeds  this  call  of  the  Master,  to  live  worthy  of 
the  Godlike  spirit  that  is  within  him. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


LIVE  THROUGH  THE  POWER  THAT 
IS  WITHOUT  YOU 
Matt,  vii,  7-1 1 

IN  the  passages  which  have  preceded  this  and 
in  the  principles  which  have  been  exhibited  in 
this  great  Discourse,  the  Master  has  taught  a  hard 
lesson.  He  has  prescribed  a  difficult  course  for 
his  learners;  marked  out  a  very  straight  and  nar¬ 
row  way  of  life  for  those  who  are  to  follow  after 
him;  he  has  made  a  demand  for  great  power,  if 
one  is  to  do  and  to  live  after  this  pattern. 

He  has  told  those  who  are  learning  from  him 
that  if  they  are  to  live  the  life  worth  living,  that 
if  they  are  to  possess  his  religion,  they  are  to 
live  a  perfect  life,  a  true  life,  a  pure  life,  etc., 
that  they  are  to  be  free  from  avarice,  double¬ 
mindedness,  worry  and  censoriousness.  In  short, 
they  are  to  do  those  very  things  for  which  they 
have  no  natural  desire  and  to  refrain  from  doing 
those  very  things  for  which  they  have  such  a 
strong  desire. 

No  man  who  thinks  can  deny  the  excellence,  the 
importance  of  this  way  of  life.  No  man  who 

279 


28o  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


appreciates  the  meaning  of  the  message  but  in¬ 
stinctively  exclaims,  “  This  is  an  hard  saying;  who 
can  hear  it?  ”  He  is  like  the  man  who  stands 
at  the  foot  of  the  lofty  Alps,  beholds  their  snowy 
heights,  discerns  their  steep  acclivities,  and  while 
he  is  gazing,  comes  one  who  says,  “  Yonder  lie 
the  broad  visions,  the  pure  air,  the  worthy  places 
to  be;  friend,  I  bid  thee  climb.” 

“  Aye  ”  answers  the  gazer,  the  aspirant, 
“  thither  lies  the  spot  to  which  I  would  fain  at¬ 
tain  —  to  be  desired,  demanded  by  thyself  and 
myself,  but  how  shall  one,  so  weak,  so  ignorant, 
so  fearful  as  I,  climb  those  dizzy  heights?  ” 

The  life  mapped  out  in  these  teachings  of 
Christ,  no  man  can  deny  to  be  true,  good  — 
thither  lies  the  blessed  life,  any  man  would  do 
well  to  ascend  these  moral  and  spiritual  heights; 
but  how?  Whence  the  strength?  Who  or  what 
will  enable?  “To  will  is  present  with  me;  but 
how  to  perform  that  which  is  good,  I  find  not.” 

To  this  practical  inquiry,  to  this  human,  com¬ 
mendable,  desire,  the  Master  now  makes  answer. 
This  answer  is  written  in  the  words,  “  Ask  and 
it  shall  be  given  unto  you;  seek  —  knock,”  and  in 
this  answer  we  find  a  counsel  that  is  both  natural 
and  true  to  the  world  in  which  we  live. 

Man  is  a  dependent  creature,  not  self-existent, 
self-sustaining,  self-sufficient  or  self-empowering. 


THE  POWER  TO  LIVE 


281 


He  is  a  being  of  needs,  wants  and  desires.  How 
dependent  a  creature  is  man,  we  fail  at  times  to 
remember,  because  we  become  so  boastful  of  the 
things  he  can  do  and  of  the  things  he  has  done. 
We  are  like  little  children  who  have  been  brought 
up  in  a  home  supplied  with  everything  that  the 
heart  can  wish  or  mind  devise  —  these  things  lie 
at  our  hands  supplied  by  the  free  gift  of  another 
—  all  we  have  to  do  is  to  reach  out  our  hand  and 
take  that  which  another  has  provided,  and  in  the 
confusion  of  our  thinking  we  come  to  consider 
that  the  taking  is  the  creating,  and  the  receiving 
is  the  giving  —  and  that  we  are  independent  and 
self-supporting.  It  would  be  well  for  us  at  times 
to  view  the  other  side  of  the  question,  and  to  real¬ 
ize  that  we  have  nothing  that  we  have  not  been 
given,  and  are  nothing  that  we  have  not  been 
made. 

Every  man  is  dependent  upon  such  simple 
things  as  air  and  light  and  heat;  food  and  water 
and  clothing;  knowledge  and  music  and  art;  love 
and  life  and  spirit.  All  these  things  are  neces¬ 
sities  of  our  natures.  Take  away  the  simplest 
and  most  elemental  of  these  gifts  and  man  lives 
but  a  little  while;  take  away  the  more  spiritual 
and  intellectual  of  them  and  man  lives  but  a  little 
life. 

Now,  what  is  true  of  man  is  true  of  all  the  rest 


282  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


of  living  beings.  Not  only  is  man  dependent  but 
all  living  things  are  dependent,  and  the  power  to 
live  comes  not  from  within  the  organism  but  from 
without.  Note  it;  the  power  to  live  comes  not 
from  within  but  from  without. 

There  is  not  a  plant  that  grows  that  does  not 
rejoice  in  borrowed  strength  and  borrowed  glory 
—  its  beauty  is  from  the  sun,  its  health  is  from 
the  soil,  its  well-being  is  dependent  upon  the 
gifts  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  As  the  plant 
is  dependent  in  that  degree  proportionate  to  the 
complexity  of  the  life  it  manifests,  so  the  animal, 
being  more  highly  organized  and  capable  of  ex¬ 
pressing  a  nobler  degree  of  life,  is  still  more  de¬ 
pendent  than  the  plant.  And  man,  who  is  wont 
to  boast  himself  as  the  king  of  all  creation,  is, 
in  truth,  because  he  is  the  highest  of  all  created 
beings,  at  the  same  time  the  most  dependent  and 
the  most  indebted,  for  every  breath  he  breathes 
and  for  every  manifestation  he  gives,  to  every 
realm  of  this  created  universe.  How  dependent 
he  is,  the  great  debt  he  owes,  the  study  of  nature 
and  of  science  more  and  more  reveals. 

How  truly  and  quaintly  has  Sir  Thomas  Browne 
in  his  u  Religion  Medici  ”  expressed  the  thought 
of  man’s  dependence  on  food  for  his  power  to 
live  physically.  Says  he,  “  All  flesh  is  grass,  is 
not  only  metaphorically  but  literally  true;  for  all 


THE  POWER  TO  LIVE  283 

those  creatures  we  behold  are  but  the  herbs  of 
the  field,  digested  into  flesh  in  them,  or  more  re¬ 
motely  carnified  in  ourselves.  Nay,  further,  we 
are  what  we  all  abhor,  Anthropophagi  and  can¬ 
nibals,  devourers  not  only  of  men  but  of  ourselves; 
and  that  not  in  an  allegory  but  a  positive  truth; 
for  all  this  mass  of  flesh  we  behold  came  in  at  our 
mouths;  this  frame  we  look  upon  hath  been  upon 
our  trenchers;  in  brief,  we  have  devoured  our¬ 
selves.” 

Moreover,  view  the  matter  from  the  broadest 
standpoint  and  we  discover  that  even  the  power 
in  the  earth,  which  is  the  power  of  the  things  on 
the  earth,  is  from  without  itself.  The  grass 
which  clothes  our  fields,  the  flowers  which  deck 
the  sward,  the  trees  which  shade  the  flowers,  the 
animals  which  browse  upon  tree  and  grass,  and 
man  himself,  king  of  them  all,  all  trace  their 
strength  directly  to  the  great  king  of  day,  and 
we  are  in  short  but  children  of  the  sun.  Thus  we 
see  that  all  creation  is  dependent,  and  that  power 
to  live  is  not  from  within  but  from  without  the 
organism. 

This  brings  us  at  once  to  the  question,  What 
do  we  mean  by  life?  From  the  physical  stand¬ 
point,  life  is  plainly  not  defined  but  described  in 
the  so-called  definition  given  by  Herbert  Spencer. 

“  Life  is  the  definite  combination  of  heterogene- 


284  THE  life  worth  living 

ous  changes,  both  simultaneous  and  successive,  in 
correspondence  with  external  coexistences  and 
sequences.”  Principles  of  Biology,  Vol.  I,  p.  74. 
Herbert  Spencer. 

In  its  simpler  form  it  means  that  life  is  cor¬ 
respondence  with  environment.  This  tells  not 
what  life  is  but  what  life  does.  Life,  then,  is 
the  continual  process  of  appropriating  the  power 
which  is  without  to  the  being  which  is  within. 
Therefore,  the  living  organism  is  simply  a  com¬ 
plex  and  interrelated  system  of  agencies  for  ap¬ 
propriating,  assimilating  and  distributing  this 
power  which  is  about  us  to  the  man  which  is 
within  us. 

As  we  study  and  examine  these  living  organisms 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  we  find  them  all 
possessed  of  those  instruments,  agents,  organs, 
now  called  lungs,  now  heart,  now  circulatory  and 
now  nervous  systems,  but  all  working  to  the  com¬ 
mon  end  to  enable  us  to  receive  and  use  the  power 
which  is  within  this  earth  we  inhabit. 

In  the  Scripture  which  is  before  us,  Christ  tells 
us  that  that  which  is  true  of  the  physical  world 
is  likewise  true  of  the  spiritual. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  worship  in  all  its  forms, 
from  the  most  primitive  to  the  most  complex  and 
civilized,  but  an  evidence  of  man’s  feeling  of  spir¬ 
itual  dependence?  This  is  the  fact  evidenced  by 


THE  POWER  TO  LIVE 


285 


the  Assyrian  and  the  Chaldean,  the  Greek  and  the 
Roman,  in  their  sacrifices;  this  is  the  evidence  of 
the  Aztec  teocallis  with  its  altar  and  smoking 
sacrifice;  this  is  the  evidence  of  the  ancestor  wor¬ 
ship  of  the  Chinese;  this  the  evidence,  most  con¬ 
cretely  put,  of  the  fetichism  of  the  west-coast  Af¬ 
rican.  The  worshiper  of  the  Congo  region  be¬ 
lieves  that  by  some  process  which  he  does  not 
clearly  understand  this  spiritual  power  has  been 
made  to  enter  into  a  small  portable  object;  this 
is  the  nexus  between  him  and  that  spiritual  power 
which  he  recognizes  to  be  without  him,  and  which 
he  would  appropriate  and  apply  to  the  daily  need 
of  his  mysterious  life. 

So  elemental  and  so  universal  a  fact  is  this 
sense  of  dependence  in  all  forms  of  religious  prac¬ 
tice  that  Schleiermacher  has  given  as  the  core  and 
tap-root  of  religion  the  feeling  of  dependence. 

No  man,  in  the  sphere  of  the  spirit  is  self-suf¬ 
ficient  and  self-sustaining  more  than  in  the  sphere 
of  the  flesh.  The  power  for  living  in  both  must 
come  from  without  rather  than  from  within.  And 
this  is  the  teaching  of  Scripture. 

Said  Jesus  to  his  disciples,  “  Ye  shall  receive 
power  after  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  come  upon 
you.”  1  Said  Jesus  of  himself,  “  The  Son  can  do 
nothing  of  himself  but  what  he  seeth  the  Father 

1  Acts  i,  8. 


286  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


do.”  2  In  accord  with  this  thought  is  the  apos¬ 
tle’s  teaching,  “  I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ 
which  strengthened!  me.”  3  This  is  the  import 
of  Christ’s  argument  with  Nicodemus,  “  Ye  must 
be  born  again.  .  .  .  Except  a  man  be  born  of 
water  and  the  Spirit.”  4  This  surely  is  the  in¬ 
terpretation  of  the  striking  figure  from  the  physi¬ 
cal  world  of  the  branch  and  the  vine.  The 
branch  that  is  cut  off  from  the  vine  is  cut  off  from 
the  source  of  power;  that  cut  off  from  the  source 
of  power  cannot  bear  fruit  —  it  is  dead.  There¬ 
fore,  “  Abide  in  me  as  the  branch  abideth  in  the 
vine. 

Moreover,  one  great  purpose  of  Scripture  is 
to  reveal  to  men  the  fact,  the  nearness  and  the 
character  of  the  spiritual  environment  in  which 
man  dwells.  This  is  the  heart  of  the  teaching  of 
the  law,  the  prophets  and  the  history.  This  is 
the  lesson  of  such  an  incident  as  that  of  Elisha 
and  the  young  man  imprisoned  in  Dothan.  These 
two  see  about  the  city  the  forces  of  the  king  of 
Syria.  The  young  man  is  fearful,  weak,  ready 
to  surrender;  Elisha  prays  that  the  eyes  of  the 
young  man  may  be  opened  that  he  may  see  that 
which  is  the  fact;  his  eyes  are  opened,  “  And  be¬ 
hold  the  mountain  was  full  of  horses  and  chariots 

2  Jno.  v,  19. 

3  Philip,  iv,  13. 

4  Jno.  iii,  5-7. 


THE  POWER  TO  LIVE 


287 


of  fire  round  about  Elisha.” 

This  certainly  is  the  meaning  of  the  pillar  of 
cloud  and  the  pillar  of  fire,  a  guide,  guard  and 
protection  to  wandering  Israel. 

This  is  the  heart  of  the  message  of  Christ  — 
the  spiritual  is  near  to  man;  God  dwells  not  only 
in  the  heavens  but  on  the  earth;  He  dwells  in  the 
midst  of  and  is  the  helper  of  His  people.  And 
this  is  the  testimony  of  godly  men  to-day. 

One  further  thought,  a  little  aside  from  the 
direct  question  but  strikingly  interesting.  As  no 
form  of  life  is  self-sufficient  and  self-sustaining, 
so  no  form  of  life  is  able  to  raise  itself  to  the 
higher  form  which  is  above  it.  If  the  mineral 
world  is  to  be  possessed  with  that  mysterious 
power  called  life,  it  can  only  be  done  by  the  vege¬ 
tal  life  reaching  down  and  touching  the  mineral 
with  the  touch  of  life.  If  the  vegetal  is  to  rise 
to  a  higher  level  of  being  it  is  only  by  the  animal 
appropriating  and  endowing  it  with  the  qualities 
of  a  higher  organism.  Likewise,  if  man  is  to  be 
raised  to  the  order  of  spiritual  beings,  it  is  only 
by  the  spiritual  reaching  down  and  touching  and 
giving  the  gift  of  spiritual  life.  This  is  the 
deeper  meaning  of  the  descent  of  the  Son  of  God 
to  earth;  this  is  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  the 
descent  of  the  Spirit. 

These  facts,  therefore,  which  are  implied  in 


288  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


this  command  of  Christ,  being  admitted,  we  are 
further  taught  that  it  is  the  wise  man  who  recog¬ 
nizes  this  great  law  and  acts  in  accord  with  it. 
An  obligation  is  laid  upon  man  by  this  explicit 
command  of  the  Master:  Ask  —  seek  —  knock. 
This  is  the  call  to  a  man  to  be  up  and  doing;  to 
get  into  right  relation  to  that  power  which  is  with¬ 
out  him,  by  an  exercise  of  that  divine  gift  of  will 
which  is  within  him. 

This  command  comes  with  the  greater  propri¬ 
ety  and  reason  because  man  is  equipped  with  the 
capability  of  responding  to  this  demand  of  his 
spiritual  environment.  We  are  now  in  the  realm 
of  the  personal,  of  that  being  endowed  with  the 
qualities  of  self-consciousness  and  self-determina¬ 
tion.  And  a  responsibility  obtains  to  such  an  one, 
which  does  not  obtain  in  other  lesser  beings.  The 
plant  cannot  determine  its  own  conditions,  can¬ 
not  regulate  its  own  environment  —  man  can.  The 
plant  cannot  set  itself  in  right  relations  or,  more 
accurately  speaking,  into  wrong  relations  with  its 
surroundings  —  man  can.  Man,  like  all  other 
living  beings,  is  equipped  with  the  means  of  com¬ 
ing  into  right  relations  with  the  totality  of  his 
surroundings;  therefore,  where  there  is  ability 
there  is  responsibility;  hence  the  propriety  of  coun¬ 
sel  and  command.  Thus  are  we  made  to  see  that 
as  there  is  a  natural  body  or  organism,  through 


THE  POWER  TO  LIVE 


289 


which  is  mediated  to  a  man  the  power  physical 
which  is  without  him,  so  there  is  a  spiritual  body 
or  organism,  through  which  man  comes  into  touch 
with  the  spiritual  power  which  is  without  him. 
And  the  spiritual  body  is  the  complex  and  inter¬ 
related  system  of  agencies  for  appropriating,  as¬ 
similating  and  distributing  spiritual  power  —  that 
the  man  may  be  alive  spiritually.  Therefore, 
teaches  the  Master,  the  man  has  something  to  do 
for  himself  in  the  realm  of  the  spiritual. 

The  Power  is  without  us,  about  us;  man’s  busi¬ 
ness  is  to  appropriate  it. 

God  never  meant  that  a  man  should  be  idle; 
physically,  mentally  or  morally.  He  must  work 
if  he  would  live,  ask  if  he  would  receive,  seek  if 
he  would  find,  knock  if  he  would  have  it  opened 
unto  him. 

The  principle  of  cooperation  is  a  fundamental 
law  of  life.  God  never  meant  that  a  man  should 
be  a  failure  through  a  lack  of  power;  and  He 
never  meant  that  he  should  have  power  without 
asking  for  it.  God  stands  ever  ready  to  help 
—  and  man’s  great  business  is  to  grasp  the  hand 
that  is  stretched  out  toward  him.  We  are  to  be 
yoked  together  with  God  while  living  our  life  in 
this  world. 

The  command  of  the  text  is  only  one  form  of 
the  command  given  in  various  ways  in  all  life. 


29o  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

Hunger  is  God’s  call  to  physical  labor;  curiosity 
is  God’s  call  to  mental  activity;  aspiration  is  God’s 
call  to  spiritual  activity.  Behold  the  man  tend¬ 
ing  and  tilling  the  ground.  What  is  he  doing? 
Asking  for  food  —  and  food  is  power.  Behold 
the  student  poring  over  the  pages  of  the  learned 
writer,  or  peering  through  the  eye  of  the  micro¬ 
scope.  What  is  he  doing?  Seeking  for  knowl¬ 
edge,  and  knowledge  is  power.  Behold  the  wor¬ 
shiper  on  his  knees,  or  standing  and  singing 
praises,  or  studying  over  the  inspired  Word  of 
Truth.  What  is  he  doing?  Knocking  at  the 
gate  of  heaven  that  he  may  come  into  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  the  Spirit  is  power. 

If  a  man  is  to  live  —  if  he  is  to  be  saved  in 
his  living  in  any  one  of  these  spheres  of  human 
existence,  it  must  be  by  his  working  out  his  own 
salvation.  And  this  the  man  should  do  the  more 
readily,  cheerfully  and  willingly,  “  For  it  is  God 
which  worketh  with  you  both  to  will  and  to  do  of 
his  good  pleasure,”  and  this  is  the  teaching  of  the 
remainder  of  this  passage. 

Says  the  Master,  to  the  man  who  obeys  this 
command  God  responds,  and  with  such  an  one 
God  cooperates.  What  simple  and  ample  evi¬ 
dence  we  have  of  this  in  the  everyday  affairs  of 
the  world  about  us.  Is  it  not  eminently  true  in 
the  field  and  the  garden,  that  while  one  may  plant 


THE  POWER  TO  LIVE 


291 


and  another  may  water,  it  is  God  who  giveth  the 
increase?  God  cooperates  with  the  tiller  of  the 
soil.  Is  it  not  eminently  true  in  the  cultivation 
of  the  mind?  He  who  trains,  exercises,  develops 
his  faculties,  shall  receive  the  return  of  his  labor 
because  God  has  so  willed  it.  And  “  what  a 
world  of  profit  and  delight,  of  power,  knowledge 
and  omnipotence,  is  open  to  the  studious  arti¬ 
san!  ”  In  the  texts  the  certainty  of  the  response 
is  certified  by  Christ.  This  fact  is  taught,  and 
repeated  in  the  very  words  of  the  passage,  “  It 
shall  be  given  unto  you,”  “  Ye  shall  find,”  “  It 
shall  be  opened  unto  you.”  “  For  every  one  that 
asketh  receiveth;  and  he  that  seeketh  findeth;  and 
to  him  that  knocketh  it  shall  be  opened.” 

The  fact  again  is  taught  in  a  figure.  Christ 
here  reasons,  as  so  often  he  did,  from  the  fa¬ 
miliar,  common,  accepted  relations  of  men  to  each 
other,  to  their  relations  to  God  and  His  relations 
to  them. 

Ask  the  boy  what  is  the  meaning  of  his  father, 
and  will  he  not  tell  you,  if  he  has  thought  at  all 
about  the  subject,  that  he  is  the  provider  and 
helper?  Ask  him  what  is  the  chief  business  of 
the  father  and  will  he  not  answer  to  give,  pro¬ 
vide,  furnish,  in  short,  to  empower? 

Moreover,  says  the  Master,  as  the  fact  of  the 
response  is  certain,  so  the  quality  of  the  response 


292  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


is  guaranteed  by  the  character  of  the  Giver.  His 
reasoning  is  this :  Bad  fathers  know  how  to  give 
good  gifts.  And  is  it  not  a  fact,  proven  by  ex¬ 
perience,  that  even  evil  men  wish,  desire  and  work 
for  better  conditions  and  higher  ideals  for  their 
children  than  they  do  for  themselves?  Ofttimes 
is  it  evidenced  that  evil  fathers  purpose  and  do 
better  for  their  sons  than  for  themselves.  Again, 
says  our  Teacher,  it  is  against  the  very  spirit  and 
nature  of  a  father  to  trick  and  deceive  his  son. 
“  Or  what  man  is  there  of  you,  who  if  his  son 
shall  ask  him  for  a  loaf,  will  he  give  him  a  stone; 
or  if  he  shall  ask  for  a  fish,  will  he  give  him  a 
serpent?  ”  So  the  reasoning  hurries  to  its 
blessed,  reassuring  conclusion  —  if  evil  fathers 
will  give  their  children  good  gifts,  certainly  good 
fathers  will  give  good  gifts,  and  your  heavenly 
Father  must  give  the  best  gifts,  or,  as  Luke  has 
it,  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  Him.  There¬ 
fore  ask,  seek,  knock;  do  your  part,  knowing  that 
God  has  done  His  before  you  have  begun  yours; 
knowing  that  He  is  not  only  your  God  but  your 
Father.  Work  out  your  own  high  destiny,  live 
up  to  the  ideals  which  I  have  set  before  you,  be¬ 
cause  God  is  near  at  hand,  working  with  you,  to 
accomplish  His  good  pleasure  for  you  and 
within  you. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


LIVE  FOR  THE  BEST  WITHIN  OTHERS 

Matt,  vii,  12 

SPEAKING  broadly,  up  to  this  point,  Jesus  has 
been  preaching  the  Gospel  of  Christian  Egoism. 
He  has  been  talking  to  the  individual  and  of  the 
individual.  He  has  taught  the  worth  of  the  in¬ 
dividual,  the  need  of  the  individual  and  the  pos¬ 
sibilities  and  blessed  life  open  to  the  individual. 
He  has  considered  the  man  in  himself,  and  the 
influences,  forces,  relations  and  activities  to  which 
the  man  must  adjust  himself,  and  which  affect  the 
man  as  the  center  of  life.  He  has  exhibited  what 
the  man,  as  an  individual,  is  to  do,  to  avoid  and 
to  be. 

This  treatment  of  the  theme  is  logical,  sensible, 
sound.  Every  man  begins  and  must  begin  his  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  life,  from  himself  as  center.  It 
is  a  man’s  first  duty  truly  to  love  himself. 

But  now  it  becomes  necessary  to  change  the 
viewpoint,  to  take  a  little  broader  scope  of 
thought,  to  lay  emphasis  on  the  “  other  man.” 
lest  the  individual  become  warped,  one-sided,  self¬ 
ish,  foolish  in  his  thought  and  conduct.  Altruism 

293 


294  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

must  have  a  place  in  all  right  thinking  and  in  all 
right  living.  One  man  is  no  man;  a  man  is  what 
he  is  only  in  relation  to  others,  and  the  wise  and 
right  thinking  man  will  recognize  this  fact  and 
live  his  life  according  to  the  facts. 

Altruism  is  not  a  contradictory  but  a  comple¬ 
ment  of  egoism.  As  the  law  runs  a  man  must 
love  himself  —  but  he  does  not  truly  love  himself 
unless  he  loves  his  neighbor  as  himself.  This 
sums  up  the  whole  law  on  the  manward  side. 
Therefore,  for  the  moment  the  Master  focuses 
the  attention  of  his  hearers  on  the  law  which  dic¬ 
tates  what  shall  be  our  relation  to  our  neighbor, 
and  this  theme  he  presents  in  those  wonderful 
words  which  have  been  commonly  and  rightly 
called  The  Golden  Rule  —  which  is  the  Greatest 
Law  in  the  World. 

Now,  is  it  not  apparent  that  this  rule  recog¬ 
nizes  and  declares  what  is  a  fact  —  that  is,  the 
complex  nature  of  humanity?  Human  society  is 
not  simple  but  complex,  and  man  exists  in  neces¬ 
sary  relations  to  others. 

This  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  all  other  cre¬ 
ated  things  in  this  universe.  The  earth  repre¬ 
sents  a  unity  in  variety.  There  is  a  variety  in 
form,  color,  sound,  function,  and  from  this  variety 
comes  the  complexity  and  the  completeness  of  the 
present  system  of  things.  In  this  vast  system, 


LIVE  FOR  BEST  WITHIN  OTHERS  295 

things  are  dependent  one  on  another,  and  things 
are  related  one  to  another.  And  the  possibility, 
the  pleasure  and  the  perfection  of  life  in  man 
comes  from  discovering  and  observing  the  right 
relation  to  the  varied  system  which  is  without  us 
and  of  which  we  are  a  part. 

How  palpably  true  this  is,  a  moment’s  reflec¬ 
tion  will  discover  in  even  the  commonest  and  most 
accepted  activities  of  our  existence.  Did  you  ever 
think  of  what  a  loss  it  would  be  to  man  if  there 
were  only  one  color?  Did  you  ever  think  how 
the  world  of  sound  would  be  curtailed  if  there 
were  only  one  tone?  Did  you  ever  consider  how 
impossible  a  world  of  sight  if  there  were  only 
one  form?  If  there  were  no  variety  in  form  or 
color  there  would  be  no  art;  if  there  were  no 
variety  in  tone  or  time  there  would  be  no  music; 
if  there  were  no  variety  in  thought  and  conduct 
there  would  be  no  man. 

As  this  is  true  for  that  material  sphere  which 
man  inhabits  called  the  earth,  so  is  it  true  for 
that  personal  sphere  in  which  he  lives  called  the 
world.  Society  is  an  organism  —  part  being  re¬ 
lated  to  part  and  all  the  parts  bearing  a  relation 
to  the  whole.  This  parallelism  is  exhibited  at 
length  and  in  great  detail  in  Herbert  Spencer’s 
“  Principles  of  Sociology,”  Part  II.  The  body 
physical  and  the  body  social  present  many  points 


2 96  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

of  striking  similarity.  They  are  alike  in  com¬ 
position  —  each  is  composed  of  individual  units, 
the  one  of  cells,  the  other  of  persons.  They  are 
alike  in  development;  each  organism,  the  physical 
and  the  social,  grows  in  complexity  as  it  grows  in 
size.  They  are  alike  in  equipment;  each  has  or¬ 
gans  formed  on  like  principles  and  qualified  to  do 
like  work.  Each  has  appropriating,  assimilating, 
distributing  organs,  and  each  is  dependent  on  the 
power  that  is  without  them  for  their  sustenance 
and  life.  Each  has  special  parts  exercising  spe¬ 
cial  functions,  these  parts  and  functions  becom¬ 
ing  more  specialized  as  the  body  becomes  more 
highly  developed.  In  each  organism,  physical 
and  social,  every  part  is  dependent  on  every  other 
part.  This,  in  brief,  is  the  underlying  idea  of 
Mr.  Spencer’s  analogy  —  and  in  this  analogy  he 
has  only  done  with  more  detail,  for  the  body  so¬ 
cial,  what  the  Apostle  Paul,  centuries  before,  and 
in  more  general  terms,  did  for  the  body  spiritual. 
The  general  truth  may  be  expressed  in  the  words 
of  the  apostle,  “  The  body  is  not  one  member  but 
many.”  This  is  the  teaching  of  philosophy;  this 
is  the  evidence  of  experience  and  this  is  the  im¬ 
plication  of  Christ,  in  this  text  we  are  considering. 

Now  this  fact,  which  no  man  can  dispute,  cre¬ 
ates  an  obligation.  From  the  interdependence 
and  interrelation  of  society  follows  a  reciprocal  in- 


LIVE  FOR  BEST  WITHIN  OTHERS  297 

debtedness  of  each  member  to  every  other  mem¬ 
ber.  In  other  words,  to  bring  the  thought  to  the 
individual  as  a  point  of  comparison,  I  am  what  I 
am  because  of  others.  How  evident  this  is,  even 
a  hasty  glance  at  the  commonest  things  of  our 
daily  life  will  reveal. 

A  glance  at  my  dinner  table  will  at  once  reveal 
that  I  am  largely  indebted  to  others  for  the  food 
that  sustains  me.  The  roast  resting  there  has 
come  from  the  plains  of  the  West;  the  salt  I  put 
upon  it  has  come  from  Virginia;  the  pepper  is 
from  the  East  Indies;  the  silver  in  my  knife  and 
fork  is  from  the  mines  in  Colorado,  the  linen 
of  the  tablecloth  is  from  Ireland,  the  wood  of  my 
board,  let  me  be  boastful  of  my  mahogany  and 
say,  is  from  Spanish  Honduras,  and  the  coffee 
which  finishes  my  very  simple  meal  is  from  the 
island  of  Java.  Thus  I  am  nourished  by  what 
the  ends  of  the  earth  have  provided  for  me. 

Behold  the  “  creature  comforts  ”  of  my  house, 
whence  are  they?  The  pictures  from  Paris  or 
Germany;  the  rugs,  let  us  hope,  from  Persia; 
the  furniture,  perchance  from  Grand  Rapids, 
Mich.,  the  bric-a-brac  and  curios  from  every  na¬ 
tion  of  the  earth.  Thus  am  I  comfortable,  thus 
am  I  luxurious,  because  of  the  skill,  industry  and 
labor  of  a  thousand  men  and  women.  Take  the 
country  in  which  I  live,  and  whose  liberties  and 


298  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

institutions  have  so  largely  made  me  what  I  am? 
Whence  came  it?  Is  it  not  the  gift  of  the  wis¬ 
dom,  the  love,  the  labor  and  the  sacrifice  of  those 
who  have  gone  before  me?  It  has  been  conse¬ 
crated  and  hallowed  by  the  blood  and  unselfish 
devotion,  even  unto  death,  of  those  whom  I  have 
never  known,  of  those  whom  I  can  never  repay. 

But  a  man  is  not  only  what  he  has  but  what  he 
knows.  Whence  my  knowledge?  To  how  many 
teachers,  instructors,  writers,  counselors,  friends 
am  I  indebted  for  the  little  that  I  know!  Bring 
man  down  to  the  last  analysis,  let  us  say  that  the 
best  that  is  within  him  is  his  character.  Let  us 
admit  the  truth  that  he  is  what  his  character  is, 
and  giving  every  credit  to  the  self,  how  many  thou¬ 
sands  have  helped  to  make  me  what  I  am  in  char¬ 
acter!  The  best  elements  of  character,  the 
qualities  of  courage,  love,  kindness,  sympathy,  un¬ 
selfishness,  service,  all  presuppose  and  necessitate 
the  existence  of  others  than  the  self  for  their 
birth  and  development. 

Now,  as  I  am  indebted  to  others  for  what  I 
am,  so  others  are  my  creditors  as  to  what  they 
ought  to  be  and  shall  be.  “  I  am  debtor  both 
to  the  Greeks  and  to  the  barbarians,  both  to  the 
wise  and  to  the  unwise,”  1  is  the  formula  in  which 
the  Apostle  has  expressed  this  truth. 

1  Rom.  i,  14. 


LIVE  FOR  BEST  WITHIN  OTHERS  299 


As  this  is  true  with  respect  to  the  matters  spir¬ 
itual,  so  is  it  true  with  respect  to  the  matters  civil 
and  social,  and  civil  jurisprudence  has  expressed 
this  obligation  in  the  maxim,  “  Where  there  is  a 
right  there  is  a  duty.”  That  I  have  civil  rights 
means  that  I  have  civil  duties;  that  none  must 
interfere  with  my  life,  liberty  and  pursuit  of  hap¬ 
piness,  reads  likewise  that  I  must  interfere  with 
the  life,  liberty  or  pursuit  of  happiness  of  none. 
That  I  have  a  right  to  the  fulfillment  of  that  con¬ 
tract  which  you  have  given  me,  means  likewise 
that  you  have  a  right  to  the  fulfillment  of  that 
contract  which  I  have  given  you. 

This  principle,  which  is  so  palpably  true  in  the 
realm  of  the  commercial  and  social,  is  likewise 
true  in  the  realm  of  the  moral.  That  I  have 
moral  rights  means  that  I  have  moral  obligations. 
Thus  it  is  plain  that  interdependence  interpreted 
rightly  reads  reciprocal  indebtedness. 

This  obligation  discloses  a  principle  not  so  read¬ 
ily  perceived;  to  wit,  the  greatest  unselfishness  is 
the  highest  self-interest.  The  idea  tempting  hu¬ 
man  nature  is  selfishness.  We  early  learn  to 
think  of  self.  This  is  but  natural;  the  first 
thoughts  necessarily  are  of  the  self,  and  of  the 
relation  of  that  system  which  is  without  us  to  the 
self.  Life  in  its  earliest  stages  is  ego-centric. 
The  child  begins  by  planning  and  seeking  its  com- 


3oo  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

fort,  its  pleasure.  The  term  “  me  ”  is  soon 
learned  and  “  my  and  mine  ”  are  not  long  in  fol¬ 
lowing.  In  this  region  the  human  life  long  lives, 
and  it  is  only  by  training,  thought  and  develop¬ 
ment  that  the  human  unit  can  be  made  to  realize 
that  “  self  ”  is  not  the  center  of  the  universe. 

In  this  respect  the  moral  world  has  paralleled 
the  physical;  for  centuries  man  believed  that  he 
lived  in  a  geo-centric  system,  and  it  was  not  until 
the  Copernican  teaching  laid  hold  on  the  minds  of 
men  that  they  saw  that  man  lives  in  a  solar-cen¬ 
tric  system.  The  center  of  things  is  not  within 
the  self  but  without  the  self.  This  is  the  truth 
of  science  and  this  is  the  truth  of  religion. 

The  maxim  commonly  quoted  is,  “  Every  man 
for  himself.”  Some  have  even  yet  remained 
bound  to  the  old  false  notion.  This  false  rule 
of  life  means  not  only  no  true  love  of  the  brother 
but  no  true  love  of  the  self  —  it  means  not  only 
murder  of  the  brother  but  murder  of  the  self. 

Now  it  is  easily  evidenced  that  the  ill-being  of 
others  is  the  ill-being  of  self.  A  disease  spot  in 
a  city  is  a  menace  to  the  entire  community.  A 
cancerous  growth  on  any  part  of  the  social  body 
injures  the  good  health  of  that  entire  body.  In 
London  a  few  years  ago  the  crusade  against  the 
sweat-shop  system  was  initiated  because  the 
daughter  of  one  of  London’s  high  officials  was 


LIVE  FOR  BEST  WITHIN  OTHERS  301 

brought  to  her  death  by  a  disease  contracted 
through  wearing  a  cloak  made  in  the  sweat-shops 
in  which  worked  a  girl  who  was  afflicted  with  that 
disease.  India  is  a  great  remove  from  Europe 
and  America;  one  might  think  it  makes  but  little 
difference  to  him  personally  whether  India  has 
the  plague  of  cholera.  But  I  have  read  that  there 
has  never  been  a  great  plague  of  cholera  that  did 
not  originate  in  India.  It  behooves  wise  men  on 
the  principle  of  self-preservation,  if  for  no  other 
motive,  to  keep  the  health  of  the  world  sound. 
Likewise,  the  moral  ill-being  of  others  affects  me. 
That  there  is  dishonesty,  robbery,  murder  and  im¬ 
morality  in  any  part  of  the  community  means  that 
my  life  is  less  secure,  safe  and  comfortable  for 
that  very  reason.  The  poverty,  pauperism,  dis¬ 
content  and  wretchedness  of  a  part  of  a  people 
was  a  matter  of  little  consequence  to  the  nobles 
of  France,  to  those  who  danced  and  gamed,  to 
those  who  crowded  the  salons  of  Paris  with  their 
smiling  and  comfortable  presence  in  1789;  but 
those  who  were  once  so  indifferent  became  very 
interested,  those  who  were  once  so  unconcerned 
became  very  much  identified  with  these  things, 
when  the  wail  of  discontent  changed  into  the  cry 
of  “to  the  guillotine!”  and  when  the  hidden 
roots  of  wretchedness  bore  the  bloody,  bitter  fruit 
of  1793.  Then  the  nobility,  when  the  dread  dis- 


302  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

ease  had  reached  the  head,  were  made  to  realize 
that  they  were  of  the  same  body  as  were  the  suf¬ 
fering  hands  and  feet  of  society.  To-day  in 
medicine  we  know  that  disease  is  not  an  affection 
of  a  part  but  an  affection  of  the  whole  body, 
which  merely  reveals  its  symptoms  in  the  part. 
How  many  times  in  history  ancient  and  modern, 
has  the  apostle’s  wise  dictum  been  verified,  “  If 
one  of  the  members  suffer  all  the  members  suffer 
with  it  ” ! 

Likewise  it  is  true  that  the  well-being  of  others 
means  the  well-being  of  self.  The  health, 
wealth,  knowledge,  morality  of  the  part  expresses 
itself  through  the  whole.  “  If  Africa  were  filled 
with  a  civilized  and  prosperous  people  it  would 
stimulate  the  business  and  multiply  the  gains  of 
mankind.”  Thus  has  it  come  to  pass  again  and 
again  that  the  unselfishness  of  the  Christian  mis¬ 
sionary  has  benefited  and  enriched  the  business 
enterprises  of  the  selfish  merchant  who  has  re¬ 
fused  to  give,  because  he  had  no  particular  inter¬ 
est  in  the  well-being  of  the  barbarian.  Thus  may 
it  be  shown  by  patent,  palpable  proof  that  “  if 
one  member  be  honored  all  the  members  rejoice 
with  it,”  and  that  in  the  last  analysis  the  high¬ 
est  unselfishness  is  the  highest  self-interest. 

If  this  principle  be  in  any  measure  true,  it 
commands  a  practice  and  demands  a  rule  of  ac- 


LIVE  FOR  BEST  WITHIN  OTHERS  303 

tion.  And  here  arises  the  difficulty,  to  find  such 
a  rule  as  shall  be  comprehensive,  yet  compact  and 
complete,  applying  to  all  possible  human  rela¬ 
tions.  This  was  the  problem  the  Master  set  him¬ 
self  to  solve  in  the  Golden  Rule.  Suppose  that 
all  possible  human  relations  and  conditions  must 
be  directed  by  separate  laws  and  precepts,  apply¬ 
ing  to  particular  individuals  and  to  specific  cases; 
how  many  volumes  of  laws  must  one  have,  how 
many  statutes  must  be  learned!  Look  at  the 
number  of  volumes  necessary  to  contain  the 
statutes  of  a  single  State.  Observe  the  precepts 
of  Moses,  and  the  multiplication  of  interpretations 
made  by  scribes  and  scholars,  and  one  can  get  some 
vague  idea  of  the  colossal  work.  A  man  could 
not  carry  the  volumes,  much  less  become  ac¬ 
quainted  with  their  contents.  Now  Jesus  has 
given  us,  in  this  Golden  Rule,  a  principle  which 
solves  the  problem  and  answers  adequately  every 
question  of  right  conduct  in  the  relation  of  a  man 
to  his  brother.  The  rule  is  simple  and  portable, 
no  man  but  what  can  easily  remember  it.  A  man 
carries  within  him  the  test  of  every  possible  situa¬ 
tion.  A  few  years  ago  the  railroads  of  Pennsyl¬ 
vania  asked  one  of  its  judges  to  frame  in  briefest 
possible  form  a  notice  that  should  comprehend 
the  entire  law  of  negligence.  To-day  we  see  the 
result  of  that  effort  on  the  sign-boards,  placed 


3o4  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

at  the  railroad  crossing  in  that  State;  it  reads, 
“  Stop  —  look  —  listen.”  The  judge  received 
five  thousand  dollars  for  his  skill.  The  Master 
has  done  a  far  harder  thing  in  giving  us  the  law 
of  brotherly  conduct  in  the  few  words  of  this 
Golden  Rule. 

This  rule  is  not  only  portable  and  easily  remem¬ 
bered  but  it  is  of  easy  and  universal  application. 
Can  one  conceive  of  any  human  situation  to  which 
it  would  not  apply?  It  applies  to  every  possible 
relation  of  human  society  —  in  the  family,  the 
school,  the  store,  the  state  and  the  nation.  Ob¬ 
serve,  again,  that  this  rule  is  in  the  positive  and 
not  in  the  negative  form;  this  makes  it  to  in¬ 
clude  all  desirable  non-interference,  as  well  as  all 
positive  helpfulness.  I  must  not  only  not  do  any¬ 
thing  to  interfere  with  my  brother’s  working  out 
his  own  highest  destiny,  but  it  lays  me  under  the 
obligation  to  do  all  that  lies  within  my  power  to 
assist  the  development  of  the  best  life  within  my 
brother.  It  says  to  me  that  I  am  to  put  myself 
in  my  brother’s  place  and  so  deal  with  him  as  I 
would  have  him  deal  with  me.  Suppose  that 
“  I  ”  am  the  boy  in  the  streets,  asking  for  food, 
for  education,  for  help  and  for  healing  —  what 
would  I  desire  my  brother  to  do  for  me?  From 
following  this  rule  has  come  schools,  hospitals, 
philanthropies  and  Christian  civilization.  The 


LIVE  FOR  BEST  WITHIN  OTHERS  305 

practical  application  of  this  rule  promises  a  glori¬ 
ous  result,  even  the  true  religion  —  the  fulfilling 
of  the  law  and  the  prophets. 

The  observing  and  obeying  of  the  law  in  this 
perfected  form  in  which  the  Master  gives  it, 
makes  religion  to  be  that  practical  thing  it  was 
intended  to  be.  All  hours  and  all  days  are  holy, 
all  places  and  all  callings  are  sacred,  and  religion 
is  coterminous  with  life.  This  was  the  religion 
that  Jesus  ever  taught,  and  the  fulfillment  or  the 
failure  to  fulfill  this  law  is  the  supreme  test  by 
which  the  sons  of  God  are  to  be  accepted  or  re¬ 
jected.  This  is  the  sum  of  the  law  —  this  is  the 
gathering  up  into  one  sentence  of  all  those  teach¬ 
ings  that  have  gone  before.  This  is  the  practical 
application  of  that  sermon  which  the  Master  has 
been  preaching.  It  is  according  to  this  law  that 
the  sons  of  men  are  to  be  judged,  as  is  most  clearly 
pictured  for  us  in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Mat¬ 
thew.  Before  him  shall  be  gathered  all  the  na¬ 
tions  of  the  earth,  and  they  shall  be  tried  by  the 
Golden  Rule. 

To  the  one  class  he  shall  say,  I  was  hungry, 
thirsty,  a  stranger,  naked,  sick  and  in  prison  —  and 
ye  ministered  unto  me  through  ministering  unto 
one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren.  To  the 
other  class  he  shall  say,  Because  ye  ministered  not 
unto  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  when  hungry, 


3o 6  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

thirsty,  a  stranger,  naked,  sick  and  in  prison,  ye 
did  it  not  unto  me.  In  other  words  the  measure 
of  our  treatment  of  our  brethren  is  the  measure 
of  our  treatment  of  Christ,  and  a  man’s  service 
of  God  is  manifested  by  his  service  to  his  fellows, 
and  the  true  religion  consists  not  in  reciting  creeds, 
nor  in  metaphysical  theologies,  not  in  making  pro¬ 
fessions,  nor  performing  rites,  but  in  showing  our 
love  toward  our  God  through  our  lives  among  our 
brothers. 

And  such  a  practical,  real  religion  as  this  is 
coincident  with  the  need  and  the  desire  of  plain 
humanity  at  the  present  day.  We  can  even  see 
signs  of  the  fulfillment  of  this  promise  in  modern 
society.  Should  you  ask  what  is  the  dominant 
idea  of  industrial  relations  to-day,  we  answer 
brotherhood.  This  is  the  underlying  meaning  of 
cooperation,  association  and  organization  among 
the  working  people;  that  is,  among  the  best  and 
sincerest  of  them.  And  in  judging  of  the  mass  it 
is  right  to  judge  it  from  the  most  favorable  in¬ 
stances.  We  do  not  deny  that  there  are  dema¬ 
gogues,  time-servers  and  self-seekers  among  the 
brotherhoods  of  labor.  They  are  but  men.  But 
even  society  itself,  if  judged  from  its  least  favor¬ 
able  aspects,  might  be  condemned  as  “  banded 
iniquity.” 

Should  you  ask  what  is  the  dominant  idea  among 


LIVE  FOR  BEST  WITHIN  OTHERS  307 

the  nations  of  the  earth  to-day,  I  answer  you 
brotherhood  —  and  call  to  witness  the  courts  of 
arbitration  and  The  Hague  conferences.  Should 
you  ask  what  is  the  dominant  idea  of  philan¬ 
thropic  activities,  without  hesitation  I  answer  you 
brotherhood.  Should  you  ask  what  is  the  domi¬ 
nant  idea  of  Christian  and  church  relations,  I  an¬ 
swer  you  brotherhood.  The  churches  are  coming 
closer  together  every  year  in  their  fraternal  rela¬ 
tions;  it  was  but  a  short  time  ago  since  a  Metho¬ 
dist,  Baptist  and  Presbyterian  congregation  in  New 
York  City  united  in  a  common  communion  serv¬ 
ice.  The  ultimate  goal  of  humanity  is  the  realiza¬ 
tion  of  this  ideal.  This  was  the  prayer  of  Christ, 
“  That  they  all  may  be  one,  as  thou  Father  art 
in  me  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in 
us.”  3  Therefore  when  we  consider  the  scope, 
the  practical  operation  and  the  heavenly  end  of 
this  Golden  Rule,  are  we  not  right  in  terming  it 
the  Greatest  Law  in  the  World? 


3  Jno.  xvii,  21. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

I 

life’s  golden  invitation 

Matt,  vii,  13-14 

THE  great  discourse  is  drawing  to  a  close; 

Christ  has  finished  the  presentation  of  the 
outline  of  the  Life  Worth  Living;  he  now  ap¬ 
proaches  the  point  where  he  must  make  the  prac¬ 
tical  application  of  his  teaching. 

The  man  who  has  been  listening  while  the  Mas¬ 
ter  unfolds  line  upon  line,  precept  upon  precept, 
principle  upon  principle,  has  felt,  “  How  hard  is 
this  teaching;  how  difficult  this  life;  how  narrow 
this  way”;  likewise  that  man  who  to-day  reads, 
meditates  upon  and  appreciates  this  discourse  ex¬ 
periences  a  like  state  of  mind  and  feeling. 

With  this  estimate  and  impression  the  Master 
perfectly  accords,  and  yet  seeks  in  a  brief  and  im¬ 
pressive  manner  to  show  that  this  life  is  narrow 
of  necessity.  He  then  makes  an  appeal  to  his 
hearers  to  choose  the  only  way  of  life  worth  liv¬ 
ing,  and  offers  them  the  Golden  Invitation  to  enter 
that  way,  with  the  assurance  that  along  this  nar¬ 
row  way  and  only  along  this  way,  lies  true  life 
and  worthy  living. 

308 


LIFE’S  GOLDEN  INVITATION  309 

We  observe  at  the  outset  that  this  invitation 
which  the  Master  gives  is  based  on  a  general 
proposition,  contained  in  the  sentences,  “  Narrow 
is  the  gate  and  strait  is  the  way  which  leads  unto 
life,”  “  For  broad  is  the  gate  and  wide  is  the 
way  which  leads  to  destruction.”  These  strik¬ 
ing  utterances  make  it  plain  to  us  that  all  life  is 
an  adjustment,  a  harmony,  a  mean  between  two 
extremes,  a  knife-edge,  a  narrow  way. 

The  ancient  mariner,  who  would  sail  between 
the  island  of  Sicily  and  the  continent  of  Italy, 
must  needs  go  through  the  narrow  and  perilous 
strait  of  Messina;  on  either  hand  lay  death  and 
destruction;  on  one  side  were  the  frightful  rocks 
of  Scylla,  on  the  other  the  yawning  whirlpool  of 
Charybdis;  only  the  courageous  man,  the  skillful 
pilot  and  the  brave  mariner,  could  steer  that  nar¬ 
row  course  necessary  for  a  safe  issue.  Thus  is 
life  pictured  to  us  in  the  words  of  our  Teacher, 
the  safe  way,  the  right  way,  is  a  narrow,  difficult 
course,  while  on  either  hand  lies  destruction. 

The  proposition  which  the  Master  here  enunci¬ 
ates  is  true  to  the  earth  in  its  system.  The  earth 
is  held  in  a  delicate  balance;  its  position  and  very 
existence  depends  upon  the  maintenance  of  this 
balance.  There  are  two  opposing  forces  which 
keep  it  in  place;  on  the  one  hand  there  is  the 
centripetal  force,  a  gravitation  toward  the  sun, 


3io  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

a  pull,  to  speak  popularly,  which  keeps  it  from 
flying  off  into  space;  but  there  is  also  a  centrifugal 
force,  due  to  the  revolution  of  the  earth  in  its 
orbit,  which  keeps  it  from  flying  into  the  sun,  and 
so  being  destroyed.  Destruction  of  the  earth,  in 
other  words,  lies  on  either  hand;  existence  and 
life  depend  upon  the  exact  balance. 

As  this  is  a  principle  true  of  the  earth  in  its 
system,  so  is  it  true  of  the  system  in  the  earth. 
All  things  on  this  earth  may  be  said  to  be  in  a 
state  of  equilibrium  or  balance.  There  is  a  place 
for  everything  and  everything  must  be  in  its 
place;  there  is  a  right  relation,  an  exact  position, 
a  particular  function.  This  place,  this  position, 
this  function,  is  the  principle  upon  which  the  earth 
depends ;  destruction  lies  on  either  hand. 

This  is  likewise  true  of  all  forms  of  life  within 
the  earth  system.  The  physical  life  of  man  de¬ 
pends  upon  the  maintenance  of  a  perfect  balance, 
an  equilibrium.  The  forces  without  man  tend  to 
destroy  this  equilibrium,  the  forces  within  seek 
to  retain,  or  if  slightly  shaken,  to  restore  this 
balance.  How  delicate  and  how  nicely  adjusted 
is  this  balance  is  immediately  revealed  in  the 
change  of  temperature,  or  in  the  heart  action,  or 
in  other  bodily  symptoms,  once  the  equilibrium 
has  been  disturbed.  Let  this  equilibrium  be  dis¬ 
turbed,  and  the  foes  of  health  immediately  assert 


LIFE’S  GOLDEN  INVITATION  31 1 

themselves.  In  other  words,  the  way  of  physical 
life  is  narrow,  while  the  way  of  physical  destruc¬ 
tion  is  very  broad.  How  well  is  this  familiar 
fact  voiced  in  the  quaint  words  of  Sir  Thomas 
Browne.  “  Men  that  look  no  further  than  their 
outsides  think  health  an  appurtenance  unto  life, 
and  quarrel  with  their  constitutions  for  being 
sick;  but  I,  that  have  examined  the  parts  of  a 
man  and  know  upon  what  tender  filaments  that 
fabric  hangs,  do  wonder  that  we  are  not  always 
so  (sick)  ;  and,  considering  the  thousand  doors 
that  lead  to  death,  do  thank  my  God  that  we  can 
die  but  once.”  1 

The  way  of  intellectual  and  mental  life  is  a 
narrow  way  and  the  way  of  intellectual  death  is 
a  broad  way.  How  emphatically  this  is  illus¬ 
trated  in  the  diseases  of  the  brain  and  of  the 
study  of  the  delicate  structure  of  that  instrument 
of  the  mind,  modern  science  and  medicine  makes 
only  too  plain. 

But  in  this  point  our  reference  is  more  particu¬ 
larly  to  the  intellectual  side  of  the  question.  How 
few  things  we  really  know,  and  how  imperfect  is 
our  knowledge  of  even  those  things  we  think  we 
know;  yet  of  how  many  things  we  are  profoundly 
ignorant.  Truth  itself,  or  the  sound  and  normal 
life  of  the  intellect,  is  not  poorly  defined  when 

1  “  Religio  Medici,”  Sir  Thos.  Browne. 


312  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


we  term  it  a  balance,  a  harmony,  a  narrow  way, 
depending  for  its  very  life  upon  the  maintenance 
of  a  happy  medium.  There  is  only  one  road  lead¬ 
ing  to  intellectual  life,  while  there  are  many  roads 
leading  to  intellectual  destruction.  How  plainly 
is  this  evidenced  in  the  history  of  philosophy. 
Materialism  in  the  extreme  equals  error;  ideal¬ 
ism  in  the  extreme  equals  error.  The  truth  lies 
somewhere  between  them.  The  intuitional  phi¬ 
losophy  in  the  extreme  produces  error;  the  utili¬ 
tarian  philosophy  in  the  extreme  is  erroneous;  the 
truth  is  the  nice  balance  between  them. 

Likewise  in  the  department  of  thought,  termed 
Theology,  the  mistakes  that  have  been  made,  it 
would  appear  have  been  the  result  of  holding  ex¬ 
treme  views,  the  consequence  of  a  departure  from 
that  middle  way  of  life.  This  fact  finds  its  illus¬ 
tration  in  the  theology  concerning  the  nature  and 
person  of  Christ.  To  regard  him  as  only  divine 
results  in  Docetism  and  Sabellianism ;  to  over¬ 
emphasize  the  human  produced  Aryanism  and 
Nestorianism.  Who  is  skillful  enough  to  steer 
that  narrow  way  between  the  two  extremes?  He 
is  the  happy  man,  who  can  safely  and  equally 
hold  the  Christ  to  be  the  God-man. 

This  same  principle  has  its  abundant  illustra¬ 
tion  in  men’s  methods  of  interpreting  the  Scrip¬ 
tures.  Extreme  literalism  in  interpretation  lands 


LIFE’S  GOLDEN  INVITATION  313 

us  in  absurdities  and  contradictions;  while  extreme 
spiritualizing  and  allegorizing  lands  one  in  that 
which  is  meaningless  and  nonsensical,  and  makes 
us  as  absurd  as  Origen.  The  truth  lies  some¬ 
where  between.  In  short,  man’s  entire  nature  is 
made  upon  this  plan;  the  maintenance  of  a  bal¬ 
ance,  the  keeping  of  a  narrow  way. 

The  failure  to  keep  the  right  balance,  the  right 
relation  of  powers  and  faculties  within  a  man,  to 
each  other,  results  in  a  one-sided,  disproportioned 
and  abnormal  product.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a 
man  who  allows  his  brain,  his  intellect,  his  head, 
to  run  away  with  him.  The  artist  represents 
such  an  one,  and  rightly,  with  a  very  large  head, 
and  a  small,  undeveloped  body.  The  humorist 
denominates  such  an  one  as  “  megalocephalous  ” 
or  “swelled-head,”  and  he  speaks  the  truth.  These 
pictures  and  these  phrases  stand  for  a  fact;  he  is 
puffed  up,  swollen,  self-conceited,  self-contained 
and  inevitably  in  error.  He  is  a  thinking  ma¬ 
chine,  cold,  logical,  an  icicle ;  at  home  in  a  library, 
a  lecture-hall  or  a  study,  but  out  of  place  and  a 
bore  elsewhere.  He  is  not  even  safe  as  a  teacher, 
because  he  only  knows  life  on  its  one  side;  he  is 
biased,  over-balanced;  nor  can  he  be  trusted  to 
impart  the  truth,  for  he  is  not  rightly  adjusted  to 
the  world  in  which  he  lives. 

Though  he  may  be  right  in  certain  aspects  of 


3 14  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

life,  for  the  intellect  has  its  place,  yet  he  is  just 
as  wrong  in  others,  for  heart  and  will  have  their 
place  in  the  world  of  men. 

Here,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  man  who  runs 
all  to  heart,  emotions,  affections,  feelings.  The 
artist  represents  him  with  his  heart  on  his  sleeve; 
he  is  pictured  with  long  flowing  locks,  a  drooping 
eye,  a  weak  mouth  and  a  sad,  sweet  smile;  the 
boys  call  him  softy  and  sop.  He  is  apt  to  be 
found  among  artists,  musicians  and  kindred  call¬ 
ings  where  the  sensibilities  and  feelings  predom¬ 
inate.  His  intellect  is  rightly  represented  by  a 
very  small  numeral.  His  will  is  a  neural  cord 
instead  of  a  backbone.  His  home  is  at  a  “  pink  ” 
tea,  a  chrysanthemum  supper  or  a  “  german.” 
He  is  not  a  fit  associate  for  man  or  woman. 

Here  is  still  another,  whose  will  far  over¬ 
weighs  his  other  faculties.  He  is  stubborn, 
heady,  quarrelsome,  opinionated,  overbearing 
and  to  be  avoided.  He  is  not  of  a  strong  will, 
for  this  depends  upon  the  right  relation  of  the 
will  to  the  other  faculties,  but  he  is  “  will-ful.” 

From  such  an  one  comes  disputation,  refuta¬ 
tion,  egotism  and  war.  Thus  we  see  that  the 
psychical  life  of  man  depends  upon  a  very  nice 
adjustment,  a  balance,  a  right  relation  and  pro¬ 
portion  of  faculty  to  faculty.  It  is,  in  other 
words,  a  narrow  way. 


LIFE’S  GOLDEN  INVITATION  315 

Moreover,  the  life  of  a  right  morality  is  a  nar¬ 
row  way,  the  life  of  a  right  and  wise  conduct,  for 
be  the  man  within  ever  so  nicely  adjusted  yet  he 
must  be  in  proper  adjustment  to  the  world  of  men 
and  of  things  and  forces  that  are  without.  He 
must  be  as  nicely  balanced  in  his  conduct  as  is  the 
bird  in  that  tenuous  air,  through  which  it  wings 
its  way.  This  delicacy  of  adjustment  may  be  rep¬ 
resented  by  the  paradoxical  principles  that  right 
living  must  observe.  “  In  decision  a  double  de¬ 
mand  is  constantly  laid  upon  us :  make  delibera¬ 
tion  habitual,  yet  decide  promptly  when  the  evi¬ 
dence  is  once  in.”  2  The  man  who  decides  with¬ 
out  deliberation  is  lost;  the  man  who  deliberates 
without  ever  reaching  a  decision  is  likewise  lost. 
We  have  seen  men  who  failed  on  either  hand; 
the  way  to  destruction  is  broad. 

u  In  the  moral  life  quietism  wars  with  enthusi¬ 
asm,  the  mood  of  the  East  with  the  mood  of  the 
West,  and  yet  we  can  spare  neither.”  Destruc¬ 
tion  lies  in  either  extreme.  u  Character  in  the 
large  sense  requires  both  self-assertion  and  self¬ 
surrender,  both  individuality  and  deference,  both 
the  assertion  of  the  law  for  one’s  self,  and  the 
reasonable  yielding  to  others,  both  loyalty  to  con¬ 
viction  and  open-mindedness,  both  free  independ- 

2  This  and  following  references  are  to  H.  C.  King’s  “  Rational 
Living.” 


3 1 6  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

ence  and  obedience.”  One  may  miss  the  true 
way  on  either  side;  one  has  missed  the  true  way, 
the  way  of  life,  when  he  has  failed  to  keep  the 
balance.  “  Religion,  too,  has  to  steer  between 
superstitiousness  that  sees  the  magically  supernat¬ 
ural  everywhere,  and  a  materialistic  realism  that 
sees  God  nowhere.”  On  the  one  side  of  this 
narrow  strait  lie  the  rocks  of  materialism,  on  the 
other  hand  is  the  whirlpool  of  a  bottomless  spir¬ 
itualism.  Thus  do  we  see  that  in  every  phase 
of  man’s  existence  the  way  of  life  is  a  narrow 
way,  and  calls  for  the  utmost  endeavor  to  keep 
it.  “  Few  there  be  that  find  it.” 

Now  this  proposition  that  life  is  a  narrow  way 
having  been  in  a  measure  evidenced  —  and  it 
might  be  far  more  largely  substantiated  did  space 
permit  —  we  observe  that  the  Master  here  makes 
a  particular  application  of  the  principle,  to  this 
discourse.  He  is  now  summing  up  and  drawing 
to  a  conclusion,  and  he  here  characterizes  the  way 
of  which  he  has  been  speaking  as  a  narrow  way. 

Life  has  been  his  theme  through  the  entire  dis¬ 
course;  the  ideal  life,  the  life  worth  living,  the 
life  which  God  demands  of  His  children.  More¬ 
over,  life  here  in  this  present  world  has  been  the 
theme  of  his  teaching.  He  says  nothing  and  he 
intimates  nothing  about  the  hereafter.  It  is  true 
he  is  speaking  of  the  citizens  and  of  the  laws  of  the 


LIFE’S  GOLDEN  INVITATION  317 

kingdom  of  heaven,  but  that  kingdom  of  heaven  of 
which  he  speaks  is  here  and  now,  in  their  very 
midst,  or  even  within  them  as  he  teaches  at  a  later 
day.  We  must  bear  this  in  mind,  as  we  think  on 
these  things,  for  some  having  forgotten  to  keep 
the  true  relation  of  predicate  to  subject  have  gone 
greatly  astray  in  their  interpretation  of  the  ser¬ 
mon,  at  this  point. 

That  this  way,  of  which  he  has  been  speak¬ 
ing,  is  a  narrow  way,  is  shown  by  the  general 
proposition  which  we  have  already  stated;  that  it 
is  a  narrow  way  is  shown  more  amply  and  quite 
as  clearly  from  a  consideration  of  the  paradoxes 
of  Scripture,  wherein  our  right  relation  to  the 
world  in  which  we  live  is  intimated.  These  para¬ 
doxes  express  the  harmony,  the  balance,  the  mean 
between  the  extremes.  “  Blessed  are  they  that 
mourn.”  “  Rejoice  and  again  I  say  rejoice.” 
That  is,  in  this  world  a  man  is  to  be  sad  and  yet 
glad;  “Blessed  are  the  meek.”  “Let  no  man 
despise  thy  youth.”  That  is,  a  man  is  to  be  hum¬ 
ble,  and  yet  of  a  strong  self-esteem.  “  Bear  ye 
one  another’s  burdens.”  “  Every  man  shall  bear 
his  own  burden.”  A  man  is  to  be  self-reliant 
and  yet  fully  aware  of  his  dependence  on  others 
and  of  others’  dependence  on  him.  “  Work  out 
your  own  salvation.”  “  By  grace  ye  are  saved.” 
That  is,  a  man  has  much  to  do  for  himself,  while 


3 1 8  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

he  remembers  that  God  does  much  more  for  him. 
“  Render  unto  Caesar  —  Render  unto  God.”  A 
man  is  under  an  obligation  to  the  kingdoms  of 
this  world,  and  at  the  same  time  under  an  obliga¬ 
tion  to  the  kingdom  not  of  this  world.  “  Use 
the  world  —  but  —  do  not  abuse  the  world.” 
That  is,  there  is  a  right  use  for  everything  and 
there  is  a  wrong  use  for  everything.  The  due 
proportion  must  be  maintained.  These  paradoxes 
might  be  indefinitely  multiplied,  but  those  given 
are  sufficient  amplification  and  illustration  of  the 
principle  involved  —  bringing  again  before  our 
minds  how  narrow  is  the  way  of  life  —  and  how 
broad  is  the  way  of  destruction. 

But  if  you  would  be  finally  convinced  that  the 
way  the  Master  teaches  is  a  narrow  way,  run 
over  those  subjects  once  more  concerning  which 
he  has  spoken.  Begin  with  that  nicely  balanced 
harmonious  character  he  has  set  before  them. 
Hear  him  as  he  says  that  we  are  to  live  the  peace¬ 
able  life,  live  the  pure  life,  live  the  large  life,  live 
the  perfect  life,  live  free  from  avarice,  live  free 
from  double-mindedness,  live  free  from  worry, 
live  free  from  censoriousness.  When  we  realize 
what  this  life  includes  and  what  it  excludes,  we 
become  aware  that  a  path  is  here  laid  down  that 
calls  for  exceeding  exactness  of  walk  and  for  most 
delicately  adjusted  powers  of  conduct. 


LIFE’S  GOLDEN  INVITATION  319 

And  now  our  Teacher,  from  speaking  of  the 
way,  turns  to  speak  of  the  common  temptation 
which  arises  when  we  contemplate  this  way.  This 
is  taught  us  in  those  words,  “  Many  there  be  that 
enter  in  thereby,”  and,  “  Few  there  be  that  find 
it.”  Do  not  these  words  teach  that  which  is  a 
fact  of  our  observation  and  experience?  Take 
life  on  the  physical  side.  How  many  are  living 
that  narrow  way  which  may  be  really  called  life? 
Ask  the  doctors  how  many  are  living  rationally, 
hygienically  ?  Ask  them  how  many  are  over-eat¬ 
ing,  how  many  under-eating?  How  many  over¬ 
working,  how  many  under-working?  Is  it  not 
true  here  that  very  few  enter  at  the  straight  gate, 
and  walk  the  narrow  way?  Turn  from  this  to 
the  moral  and  intellectual  life.  How  many  here 
maintain  their  balance,  keep  the  road  of  truth? 
Are  men  using  their  brains  as  theyvought?  Is  not 
the  complaint  against  the  people  to-day,  as  it  was 
in  Isaiah’s  time,  “My  people  do  not  think”? 
Are  most  people  even  attempting  to  become  fa¬ 
miliar  with  the  great  thoughts  of  the  great  think¬ 
ers  of  all  time?  If  you  think  so,  behold  “the 
people  ”  as  they  go  to  business  to-morrow  by  tram 
and  by  train,  and  what  are  they  reading;  the  best 
books  of  all  ages?  They  are  reading  a  one  cent 
newspaper.  But  see  them  at  night,  at  leisure  in 
their  homes!  What  now  are  they  reading? 


320  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

That  same  one  cent  newspaper.  But  comes  the 
Sabbath,  the  day  of  rest,  and  of  spiritual  refresh¬ 
ment.  Now  behold  them !  They  will  now  be 
reading  their  best  literature.  What  is  it?  That 
same  newspaper,  but  to-day  increased  in  size  and 
clothed  in  calico  gaudiness  in  recognition  of  the 
Sabbath. 

And  when  it  comes  to  the  narrow  way  of  char¬ 
acter  and  conduct,  the  best  we  can  say  is  what  the 
old  Quaker  said  to  his  wife,  “  Wife,  it  seems  to 
me  that  every  one  but  me  and  thee  are  unbal¬ 
anced,  and  sometimes  methinks  that  thee  art  a 
little  queer.”  In  short,  how  few  there  be  that 
find  the  narrow  way,  which  combines  strictness 
with  liberality,  gentleness  with  firmness,  generos¬ 
ity  with  thrift,  industry  with  moderation,  tem¬ 
perance  with  tolerance. 

The  Master,  then,  in  these  phrases  states  what 
is  a  fact,  but  it  is  well  for  us  to  mention  a  modi¬ 
fication  of  the  fact.  These  phrases  “  few  ”  and 
“  many  ”  must  not  be  extended  too  far  nor  be¬ 
yond  the  subjects  which  they  modify. 

The  Master  is  certainly  not  here  forestalling 
the  Day  of  Judgment,  nor  is  he  affording  us  a 
norm  by  which  we  are  to  tell  the  final  destiny  of 
ourselves  nor  our  fellows.  The  terms  “  life  ”  and 
“  destruction  ”  are  both  of  the  relative.  Take 
them  in  their  broad  sense  and  do  they  not  ac- 


LIFE’S  GOLDEN  INVITATION  321 

cord  with  the  common  facts  of  our  common  ex¬ 
perience?  Do  they  not  tell  us  that  many  are 
marred,  hampered  and  hindered  by  the  want  of 
balance  in  some  phase  of  their  lives,  and  that  few 
are  symmetrical  and  harmonious  in  their  lives, 
and  that  all  stand  in  need  of  these  finger-posts  of 
principle  which  he  is  here  erecting,  to  guide  all 
into  the  narrow  way  of  life?  And  do  they  tell 
us  anything  more?  I  believe  not.  These 
phrases,  above  referred  to,  also  intimate  a  rea¬ 
son  for  the  fact.  It  is  so  easy  to  go  wrong  and 
it  is  so  hard  to  go  right.  Human  nature  feels  the 
temptation  to  move  along  the  line  of  the  least 
resistance.  It  is  easy  to  drift  with  the  current, 
it  is  hard  to  row  against  it.  The  Master  here 
says  the  easy  is  the  wrong  way,  the  perilous  way. 
Another  reason  for  the  fact  is,  this  is  the  way 
the  crowd  goes,  and  because  a  man  moves  along 
the  line  of  the  least  resistance,  a  man  goes  with 
the  crowd.  Is  this  not  true?  That  the  easy 
way,  the  broad  way  is  the  way  of  the  crowd? 
How  many  followed  and  became  patrons  of  this 
narrow  way  of  Christ  during  his  life  on  earth? 
We  cannot  give  figures  but  we  can  certainly  say, 
not  many. 

How  many  are  there  to-day  allied  with  our 
churches  compared  with  those  not  identified  with 
our  churches?  How  many  even  within  our 


322  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

churches  are  going  this  narrow  way?  How  many 
are  practicing,  or  attempting  to  practice,  the  re¬ 
ligion  of  Christ  as  here  exhibited?  Not  the  way, 
mark  you,  approved  by  the  fathers,  the  counsels 
and  the  courts  of  the  church;  but  the  way  re¬ 
vealed,  approved  and  here  outlined  by  the  Mas¬ 
ter.  So  the  statement  of  the  Master  is  sadly 
true,  “  Many  there  be  that  enter  in  thereby  ”  and 
“  Few  there  be  that  find  it.” 

Because  of  the  principle,  because  of  the  fact, 
because  of  the  temptation,  the  Master  utters  the 
urgent  invitation,  “  Enter  ye  in  by  the  narrow 
gate.”  This  invitation  has  all  along  been  im¬ 
plied  but  now  it  is  formally  stated;  stated  to  those 
disciples  who  heard  those  words  so  long  ago,  of¬ 
fered  through  them  to  those  disciples  to  whom 
this  plan  of  the  life  worth  living  might  through 
all  time  come.  There  is  an  urgency  in  this  invi¬ 
tation,  a  pathetic  urgency,  resting  in  the  God- 
given  ability  of  the  man  to  choose.  Christ  is 
not  mocking  his  people,  he  is  not  asking  us  to 
do  the  impossible.  You  can  choose,  you  must 
choose !  Not  to  choose  the  narrow  way  is  to 
choose  the  broad  way.  There  are  in  reality  only 
two  ways,  however  so  many  more  there  may  seem 
to  be.  This  invitation  is  urgent  because  of  the 
blessed  end  of  it.  This  way  alone  leads  to  real 
life,  all  others  lead  away  from  true  and  right 


LIFE’S  GOLDEN  INVITATION  323 


living. 

Thus  doth  the  Master  here  appeal  to  the  com¬ 
plete  gamut  of  the  motives  of  his  hearers.  He 
appeals  to  the  noble  in  man,  to  the  motives  of 
aspiration,  hope,  courage  and  a  true  ambition. 
He  appeals  to  the  base  motives,  of  apprehension, 
fear  and  self-preservation.  One  question  forces 
itself  upon  our  minds.  Why  is  so  good  an  in¬ 
vitation  given  in  so  forbidding  a  form?  The  an¬ 
swer  is  forthcoming;  because  of  the  honesty  of 
the  Master.  He  must  state  the  facts  and  these 
are  the  facts.  How  differently  framed  are  the 
invitations  of  men.  The  very  morning  I  was 
writing  the  above  lines  there  came  into  my  hand 
an  invitation  to  invest  in  some  mining  stock,  with 
the  glowing  promise  that  the  stock  was  sure  to  give 
a  return  of  from  six  hundred  to  a  thousand  per 
cent,  on  the  investment.  I  fear  this  offer  be¬ 
cause  it  promises  too  much.  Jesus  would  have 
us  know  the  worst  at  the  beginning.  “  If  it  were 
not  so  I  would  have  told  you.” 

Fairness  causes  him  to  couch  his  invitation 
in  this  form.  He  endorses  the  opinions  of 
men  that  this  way  is  not  easy.  It  is  hard  to  live 
truly.  He  would  make  us  alive  to  this  fact  and 
aware  of  the  real  difficulties  of  right  living.  We 
can  also  sense  in  this  invitation  the  prudence  of 
a  man  who  knew  men.  The  very  difficulties  of 


324  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

the  problem  before  us,  of  the  question  to  be  de¬ 
cided,  at  once  make  us  to  realize  our  need  of  the 
divine  help,  and  so  it  leads  logically  up  to  the 
thought  of  the  last  section  of  this  grand  discourse, 
wherein  the  divine  Helper,  even  the  Son  of  Man 
and  the  Son  of  God,  is  set  before  us,  as  the  one 
who  has  come  into  this  world  to  help  us  to  find 
and  to  keep  the  narrow  way  of  the  perfect  life. 


CHAPTER  XX 


life’s  needed  word  of  warning  and  wisdom 

Matt,  vii,  15-20 

JESUS  is  fully  aware  that  his  last  utterances, 
concerning  life  as  a  narrow  way  and  to  be  en¬ 
tered  by  a  gate  that  is  straight,  is  a  teaching  that 
is  unpalatable  and  hard  for  his  hearers  to  receive. 

He  who  knew  men  knew  that  this  counsel 
which  he  had  just  given  ran  counter  to  human 
desire  and  impulse;  he  knew  that  it  interfered 
with  the  easy  peace  of  mind  which  the  flesh  loves 
so  well;  he  understood  that  it  contradicted  the 
laissez  faire  doctrine  of  life,  so  acceptable  to  the 
thoughtless  and  the  indifferent;  he  knew  that  it 
conflicted  with  the  common  practices  of  men. 

And  knowing  these  things,  he  further  knew 
that  in  his  day  and  in  the  days  to  come,  as  in  the 
former  days,  in  the  times  of  Jeremiah  and 
Isaiah,  there  would  be  those  who  would  have 
“  itching  ears,”  those  who  would  weary  of  this 
hard  counsel,  those  who  would  say  to  their  re¬ 
ligious  leaders  and  teachers,  to  their  prophets, 
“  Prophesy  not  unto  us  right  things:  speak  unto 

us  smooth  things,  prophesy  deceits.” 

325 


326  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

He  who  knew  men  knew  that  there  would  be 
those  among  the  so-called  prophets  who  would 
respond  to  this  demand.  Those  who  would  no 
longer  speak  that  truth  hard  to  tell,  unwelcome  to 
hear,  but  those  who  would  respond  to  this  de¬ 
sire  of  the  people,  who  would  answer  to  this  call, 
and  who  would  teach  of  an  easy  life,  and  a 
smooth  path  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

The  Master  would  save  his  children,  the 
Teacher  would  save  his  disciples,  from  the  folly 
and  fatality  of  following  such  leaders.  There¬ 
fore,  in  his  present  lesson  he  warns  them  of  the 
false  prophets  that  shall  arise;  he  places  within 
their  keeping  a  test  by  which  they  may  knowT  the 
false  prophet,  and  by  which  the  sincere,  honest, 
earnest  seeker  after  truth  and  life  may  likewise 
know  the  true  prophet.  But,  further,  by  furnish¬ 
ing  them  with  this  test  he  has  put  within  their 
means  the  measure  by  which  they  may  know  him ; 
the  philosopher’s  stone,  which  while  it  makes 
known  the  base  metal  shall  also  show  him  to  be 
the  safe  and  true  prophet  to  follow. 

In  this  passage  our  Lord  plainly,  clearly  recog¬ 
nizes  what  is  a  fact,  namely,  that  the  prophet  has 
a  place  and  part  in  society.  That  there  is  a  need 
for  the  office  of  the  prophet  is  most  clearly  shown 
by  the  prevalence  of  the  prophet.  At  no  time  in 
the  history  of  the  world  of  which  we  may  know 


LIFE’S  WORD  OF  WARNING  327 

anything  was  there  ever  a  period  when  the 
prophet  is  not  present.  He  is  found  among  the 
Chinese  and  the  Indians  of  the  East,  among  the 
Babylonians  and  the  Assyrians,  among  the 
Egyptians  and  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans,  among 
the  most  civilized  and  enlightened  nations  of  an¬ 
tiquity.  He  is  likewise  found  among  those  peo¬ 
ples  that  give  the  least  evidence  of  advancement 
and  culture.  Among  the  Patagonians  and  the 
American  Indians,  the  Sandwich  Islanders  and  the 
most  primitive  peoples,  the  office  of  prophet  is 
present  and  is  honored.  And  always  where  he 
is  present  he  has  had  a  following.  The  reason 
for  this  is  not  far  to  seek.  Men  are  by  nature 
differently  gifted  and  variously  talented.  Some 
have  the  gift  of  healing,  some  of  organizing,  some 
are  by  nature  leaders  of  their  fellows;  some  have 
skill  of  hand,  some  greater  power  of  observation 
or  invention,  and  some  are  gifted  as  the  seer. 
The  prophet  is  not  merely,  nor  even  principally, 
the  man  who  foresees  and  predicts  events  which 
are  to  come  to  pass;  but  he  is  the  man  who  lives 
near  to  the  heart  of  facts;  the  man  who  inhabits 
the  upper  air  and  catches  broad  visions  of  princi¬ 
ples,  the  man  who  is  in  tune  with  the  Infinite;  in 
short,  the  prophet  is  the  mouthpiece  of  the  Al¬ 
mighty,  the  man  who  speaks  for  God  and  con¬ 
cerning  the  things  divine. 


328  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

To-day,  as  much  as  in  the  former  years,  there 
is  among  the  people  the  desire  and  the  demand 
for  the  one  who  will  speak  and  teach  concerning 
the  things  of  God.  There  is  the  yearning  for  a 
leader;  the  man  who  will  speak  with  authority. 
Society  is  interrelated  and  interdependent  and  so 
arises  the  need  for  authorities  who  can  teach  us 
wisdom,  in  the  various  affairs  of  life.  Hence  the 
office  of  the  prophet  ever  has  and  ever  will  have 
a  place  among  mankind.  In  these  words  then, 
the  Master  not  only  recognizes  the  rightful  place 
of  the  prophet,  but  he  tells  us  what  is  a  sad  and 
depressing  fact,  namely,  that  even  those  who 
speak  for  God,  and  about  the  things  divine,  those 
who  teach  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  do  not  all 
of  them  speak  truly,  neither  can  they  all  be  im¬ 
plicitly  trusted,  nor  safely  followed.  He  here 
refers  to  a  class  whom  he  elsewhere  denominates 
as  “  blind  leaders  of  the  blind.” 

There  are,  and  there  ever  will  be  in  the  world, 
false-prophets;  some  through  ignorance,  those 
who  think  they  have  a  call  from  God  to  speak, 
but  whose  teaching  is  foolishness;  some  through 
false  motives,  it  may  be  prompted  by  the  desire 
to  support  a  cause  or  an  institution,  they  affirm 
as  the  truth  of  God  what  is  only  the  invention  of 
man;  some  through  lack  of  independence  or 
through  desire  to  comply  with  the  popular  clamor 


LIFE’S  WORD  OF  WARNING  329 

or  to  contract  the  popular  applause ;  some  through 
bad  motives,  for  the  gain  of  power,  or  the  ac¬ 
cumulation  of  gold,  or  the  credit  of  piety;  yes, 
there  are  even. those  who  will  play  the  hypocrite 
to  be  counted  “  holy  ”  of  their  fellows.  But  there 
are  also  true  prophets,  and  it  is  that  his  followers 
may  be  able  to  tell  the  true  as  well  as  to  discern 
the  false  that  the  Master  here  offers  the  true 
test  of  a  prophet. 

In  speaking  of  the  proof  of  a  prophet,  our 
Lord  says  that  we  cannot  always  tell  the  true 
prophet  from  the  false,  by  the  appearance.  He 
may  be  clad  in  the  characteristic  sheep’s  coat  of 
the  prophets  of  old,  he  may  be  garbed  in  the  long¬ 
tailed  coat  and  the  white  tie  of  the  modern  day, 
he  may  have  the  most  fashionable  and  most  ap¬ 
proved  dress  of  any  period,  but  this  does  not  mark 
him  as  a  true  prophet.  Nor  can  we  tell  the  false 
prophet  by  his  facial  appearance;  he  may  have 
the  face  of  a  saint,  the  “  alabaster  brow  and  the 
sad  sweet  smile  ”  which  accredits  a  prophet  with 
so  many  to-day.  He  may  use  the  honeyed  words 
and  the  “  cant  ”  phrases  which  the  pietistic  ap¬ 
prove  and  the  unthinking  accept  as  a  mark  of 
his  prophetic  gift.  Jeremiah  complains  of  the 
false  prophets  of  his  day,  because  they  decorated 
and  interlarded  their  pious,  false  utterances  with 
the  cant  phrase  then  in  vogue,  “  The  burden  of 


330  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

the  Lord.”  He  may  make  a  claim  to  extreme 
holiness;  the  false  prophet  usually  does,  and  his 
possession  of  that  gift  is  usually  in  inverse  ratio 
to  his  boast  of  it.  The  man  who  has  really  at¬ 
tained  this  state,  if  any  man  ever  attains  it,  is 
never  aware  of  it.  How  many  and  how  easily 
are  persons  carried  away,  and  deceived  by  these 
very  appearances  which  the  Lord  here  tells  us  are 
no  marks  of  a  true  prophet! 

Then  he  names  the  test  of  the  prophet,  the 
supreme,  the  perfect,  test,  “  By  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them.”  It  takes  time  to  apply  this  test,  but 
it  is  the  only  safe  and  reliable  proof  of  a  prophet. 
How  much  the  Master  thinks  of  it,  is  shown  by 
his  elaboration  of  it.  He  is  almost  tautological 
in  his  expressions  concerning  this  test.  He  tells 
his  hearers  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  verses 
that  this  law  is  a  law  of  nature  —  true  for  trees 
and  true  for  men  —  true  for  everything  which  has 
life.  The  outer  manifestation  must  correspond 
to  the  inner  life;  if  the  life  is  good,  the  fruit  must 
be  good;  if  the  life  is  bad,  the  fruit  cannot  be 
other  than  bad. 

This  law  is  unalterable  and  cannot  be  changed. 
There  is  no  appeal  from  this  test,  it  is  final;  it  is 
the  Lord’s  own  test  of  priest  and  people.  Here 
he  applies  it  to  the  prophets,  to  the  leaders  of  the 
people  in  things  spiritual;  in  the  following  pas- 


LIFE’S  WORD  OF  WARNING 


33i 


sage  he  applies  it  to  the  people  themselves.  Ob¬ 
serve,  it  is  final  and  unequivocal;  there  is  not  one 
law  for  the  preacher  and  one  for  the  people; 
they  are  all  to  be  judged  by  the  same  law,  both 
preacher  and  people. 

But,  asks  some  one,  “  Who  is  to  apply  this 
test?  ”  The  answer  is,  the  individual;  each  for 
himself.  Is  it  not  written  and  “  Ye  shall  know 
them  ”  ?  Reason  and  judgment  and  the  God- 
given  faculties  of  man  are  to  be  used  by  the  man 
himself. 

“To  know  ”  is  an  intellectual  process  and  an 
intellectual  end  which  each  must  exercise  and  at¬ 
tain  for  himself.  This  is  not  a  function  which 
may  be  delegated  to  counsel,  or  to  authority,  or 
to  church  or  to  any  other  man  or  body  of  men; 
it  is  a  responsibility  that  attaches  to  the  individual 
and  that  each  must  exercise  for  himself.  It  is 
true  that  there  may  be  helps  and  guides  in  ap¬ 
plying  this  test,  as  the  opinions,  endorsements,  ap¬ 
provals,  estimates,  experiences  of  others,  but 
ultimately  the  authority  to  decide  rests  and  must 
ever  rest  with  the  man  himself.  The  right  of 
private  judgment  obtains  in  the  sphere  of  reli¬ 
gion,  and  the  obligation  of  tolerance  and  charity 
is  a  corollary  of  this  principle.  One  may  fairly 
ask,  What  is  the  practical  result  of  this  searching 
test?  And  the  answer  must  be  given  that  it  is 


332  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

twofold,  working  not  only  the  condemnation  of 
some,  but  the  approval  of  many  more  of  the 
prophets. 

Right  here  it  seems  to  me  that  the  power  con¬ 
ferred  by  the  gift  of  the  test  has  been  abused 
or  misapplied.  The  customary  use  of  this  test 
has  been  for  the  condemnation  and  rejection  of 
all  those  prophets  and  their  followers  who  may 
not  agree  with  me  in  doctrine  and  belief.  View 
the  commentators  on  this  passage  and  see  if  it  is 
not  so.  Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  Pelagians  and 
Socinians,  Armenians  and  Presbyterians,  Con- 
fucians  and  Mohammedans,  seriatim ,  according  to 
the  creed  of  the  person  using  the  test,  have  been 
found  fruitless  and  condemned.  This  surely  is 
a  misuse  of  the  test,  for  two  reasons.  It  was  not 
given  for  our  pride  and  puffing  up,  but  for  our 
enlightenment  and  to  lead  to  the  true  prophet. 
This  test,  “  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,” 
approves  many  of  the  prophets  whom  many  are 
prone  to  condemn.  Take  the  great  prophets  of 
history:  Gautama,  Zoroaster,  Confucius  and  Mo¬ 
hammed.  Are  they  to  be  classed  with  the  false 
prophets?  Surely  they  have  borne  fruit,  good 
fruit,  abiding  fruit,  fruit  which  has  fed  and  nour¬ 
ished  millions  of  men  for  centuries,  and  fruit  that 
must  be  acceptable  to  the  Master.  Fruits  of  pure, 
charitable,  unselfish,  self-sacrificing,  God-seeking 


LIFE’S  WORD  OF  WARNING  333 


and  God-serving  lives. 

Above  all,  this  test  leads  us  into  the  pres¬ 
ence  and  unto  the  feet  of  the  Prince  of  the 
Prophets.  Again  let  us  ask,  Why  were  we  given 
this  warning  and  why  this  test?  Surely  it  was 
not  for  the  futile  task  of  finding  false  prophets 
alone.  This  would  be  a  vain  labor.  But  for  the 
practical  and  necessary  end  of  finding  the  true 
Prophet  of  our  lives.  Not  for  the  hopeless  and 
useless  object  of  destructive  criticism,  as  so  many 
interpreters  seem  to  think,  but  for  the  vital  and 
useful  end  of  discovering  the  real  leader  of  our 
lives.  It  is  not  necessary  for  a  man  to  know  all 
the  ways  of  evil  before  he  can  know  the  way  of 
good. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  a  man  to  count  every 
other  way  as  utterly  worthless  because  he  knows 
the  best  way.  It  is  not  necessary  to  mark  all  the 
false  prophets  who  have  lived  and  taught  if  we 
can  find  the  true  prophet.  Therefore  the  best 
use  that  can  be  made  of  this  searching  test  is  to 
apply  it  to  that  one  who  above  all  others  claims 
to  be  the  Prophet  of  Truth.  In  other  words, 
there  is  one  prophet  whose  fruits  approve  and 
accredit  him  —  the  true  Prophet  is  Christ.  He 
has  here  given  us  the  scales  in  which  he  invites 
his  disciples  to  weigh  him;  he  has  here  given  us 
the  norm  by  which  he  asks  us  to  judge  him;  he 


334  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 


has  here  given  us  the  test  by  which  he  asks  us 
to  prove  him. 

If,  then,  one  ask  me,  and  it  must  ever  be  a  per¬ 
sonal  question,  a  subject  of  personal  testimony, 
a  matter  which  each  must  ultimately  settle  for 
himself;  if  one  ask  me  why  I  believe  Jesus  Christ 
to  be  the  Prince  of  the  Prophets,  I  answer:  I 
believe  him  to  be  such,  to-day,  not  because  my 
father  has  so  told  me,  not  because  the  church  has 
approved  him,  not  because  councils  have  endorsed 
him,  not  because  theology  has  logically  estab¬ 
lished  him  —  though  all  these  authorities  have 
their  weight  and  their  weight  is  great,  but  because 
he,  above  all  others,  satisfies  that  test  which  him¬ 
self  has  established,  and  because  my  mind,  my 
heart  and  my  spirit  know  him  to  be  the  prophet 
preeminent  and  the  Lord  of  my  life. 

By  the  fruit  in  his  own  life  I  know  him  to  be 
the  true  prophet.  He  affords  me  the  truest  idea 
of  man  that  I  have  ever  known.  He  is  the  best 
expression  of  personality  that  I  have  found  in  this 
world.  This  surely  was  the  thought  of  Paul, 
when  he  said,  “  Till  we  all  come  .  .  .  unto  a  per¬ 
fect  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the 
fullness  of  Christ  ”  (Eph.  iv,  13). 

Of  manhood,  a  man  himself  is  capable  of  judg¬ 
ing;  he  has  within  himself  the  power  of  knowing 
manhood;  he  has  the  faculties  for  tasting  and 


LIFE’S  WORD  OF  WARNING  335 

testing  manhood,  and  who  beholds  and  thinks 
upon  the  Christ,  sees  the  perfect  man.  Now  this 
manhood  expresses  itself  in  his  words  and  teach¬ 
ings.  In  these  words  I  find  a  counsel  above  that 
of  man,  a  guide  which  my  soul  approves.  In  his 
words  I  find  a  warning  which  my  inner  sense  says 
is  true.  In  his  words  I  find  a  comfort,  such  as 
I  can  find  nowhere  else,  a  comfort  which  reaches 
my  deepest  sorrow,  strengthens  my  greatest  weak¬ 
ness,  kindles  my  faintest  hopes,  lightens  my  dark¬ 
est  paths. 

The  practical  test  of  light  is  its  illuminating 
power;  Christ’s  words  are  light.  The  practical 
test  of  food  is  its  nourishing  power;  Christ’s 
words  satisfy  my  soul  hunger.  The  practical  test 
of  water  is  its  refreshing  power;  Christ’s  words 
are  to  me  a  mountain  spring.  Therefore  he  is 
my  Prophet. 

This  manhood  expresses  itself  in  the  works  he 
did  while  he  was  on  the  earth.  I  look  at  the  rec¬ 
ord  of  the  life  he  lived  here  and  I  find  that  life 
was  in  him,  because  life  issued  from  him.  “  In 
him  was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men.” 
This  is  his  own  test  and  proof  of  himself,  we 
might  almost  say  to  himself.  At  the  opening  of 
his  ministry  he  read  these  words  before  the  peo¬ 
ple  of  his  home  town  of  Nazareth:  “  The  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  is  upon  me  because  he  anointed  me 


336  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor;  he  hath  sent 
me  to  proclaim  release  to  the  captives,  and  re¬ 
covering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty 
them  that  are  bruised,  to  proclaim  the  acceptable 
year  of  the  Lord.”  Who  does  these  things,  who¬ 
ever  he  may  be,  is  the  heaven-accredited  guide, 
and  must  be  the  guide  of  my  life.  And  beqause 
he  did  them  more  and  more  excellently  than  any 
other,  he  above  all  is  my  Prophet. 

But  this  life  expressed  itself  best  in  his  char¬ 
acter.  There  is  no  attribute  of  a  good  character 
Avhich  is  not  found  in  him  in  its  perfection.  He 
had  the  stronger  qualities  of  a  great  character, 
courage,  honesty,  fearlessness,  independence,  self- 
reliance  and  he  had  also  the  gentler  qualities 
of  true  greatness  of  kindness,  meekness,  sym¬ 
pathy,  patience,  tolerance,  forgiveness.  And  these 
qualities  were  combined  in  a  service  that  never 
faltered,  and  in  a  sacrifice  that  stopped  not  even 
at  the  cross. 

Moreover,  he  is  unique  in  this  that  his  char¬ 
acter  is  stainless  and  his  life  without  sin.  “  In 
vain  we  look  through  the  entire  biography  of 
Jesus  for  a  single  stain  or  the  slightest  shadow 
on  his  moral  character.  There  never  lived  a 
more  harmless  being  on  earth.  He  injured  no¬ 
body,  he  took  advantage  of  nobody.  He  never 
spoke  an  improper  word,  he  never  committed  a 


LIFE’S  WORD  OF  WARNING  337 

wrong  action.  He  exhibited  a  uniform  elevation 
above  the  objects,  opinions,  pleasures  and  pas¬ 
sions  of  this  world  and  disregard  to  riches,  dis¬ 
plays,  fame  and  favor  of  men.  .  .  .  No  vice  that 
has  a  name  can  be  thought  of  in  connection  with 
Jesus  Christ.  Ingenious  malignity  looks  in  vain 
for  the  faintest  trace  of  self-seeking  in  his  mo¬ 
tives  ;  sensuality  shrinks  abashed  from  his  celestial 
purity;  falsehood  can  leave  no  stain  on  him  who 
is  incarnate  truth;  injustice  is  forgotten  beside  his 
errorless  equity;  the  very  possibility  of  avarice  is 
swallowed  up  in  his  benignity  and  love;  the  very 
idea  of  ambition  is  lost  in  his  divine  wisdom  and 
divine  self-abnegation.”  1 

But,  still  more,  that  harmony  and  balance  of 
character,  that  perfect  adjustment  and  due  pro¬ 
portion,  which  he  himself  has  named  as  the  true 
way  of  life,  finds  its  best  and  truest  exemplifica¬ 
tion  in  him.  “  Christ  was  free  from  all  one¬ 
sidedness  which  constitutes  the  weakness  as  well 
as  the  strength  of  most  eminent  men.”  2  “  His 

character  never  lost  its  even  balance  and  happy 
equilibrium,  never  needed  modification  or  read¬ 
justment.”  “  He  combined  the  vivacity  without 
the  levity  of  the  sanguine,  the  vigor  without  the 

1  “  The  Person  of  Christ,”  by  Philip  Schaff,  D.D.,  Am.  Tract 
Society,  1865,  pp.  53-4. 

2  This  and  the  following  quotations  from  Schaff’s  “  Person  of 
Christ,”  noted  above. 


338  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

violence  of  the  choleric,  the  seriousness  without 
the  austerity  of  the  melancholic,  the  calmness  with¬ 
out  the  apathy  of  the  phlegmatic  temperament.” 
He  was  preeminently  sane  and  natural.  “  Ele¬ 
vated  above  the  affairs  of  the  world,  yet  he  min¬ 
gled  with  society  —  played  with  little  children, 
shed  tears  at  the  sepulcher,  delighted  in  God’s 
nature.”  “  His  zeal  never  degenerated  into 
passion,  nor  his  constancy  into  obstinacy,  nor  his 
benevolence  into  weakness,  nor  his  tenderness  into 
sentimentality.”  “  He  was  the  most  effective  and 
yet  the  least  noisy,  the  most  radical  and  yet  the 
most  conservative,  calm  and  patient,  of  all  re¬ 
formers.” 

Such  a  balanced,  harmonious,  symmetrical,  per¬ 
fect  character  must  awake  my  approval  and  elicit 
my  admiration,  and  this  from  the  very  fact  of 
beholding  it,  as  one  who  sees  the  rose  must  ac¬ 
knowledge  it  to  be  beautiful;  who  looks  upon  the 
sun  must  confess  it  to  be  light. 

Jesus  affords  me  the  truest  idea  of  God  that  I 
have  ever  known.  Rightly  does  the  apostle  John 
say,  “No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time;  the 
only  begotten  Son  ...  he  hath  declared  him  ” 
(or  made  him  manifest). 

No  man  hath  seen  God  in  theologies.  These 
may  deal  in  representations  of  the  Almighty,  but 
they  so  analyze,  define  and  exalt  Him,  as  to  re- 


LIFE’S  WORD  OF  WARNING  339 

move  Him  out  of  my  reach.  No  man  hath  seen 
God  in  metaphysic  and  philosophy;  to  speak  of 
Him  as  the  Infinite,  the  Absolute  and  the  Eternal, 
is  to  enwrap  Him  in  such  clouds  of  heavenly  glory 
that  he  is  hidden  from  the  feeble  gaze  of  earth- 
born  men. 

But  Christ  represents  to  me  a  God  whom  I  can 
understand,  a  God  who  has  come  down  to  the 
level  of  man;  a  God  who  dwells  among  His  peo¬ 
ple;  a  God  who  helps  His  people,  not  only  in 
the  great  ongoings,  but  in  their  daily  lives ;  a  God 
who  loves  with  a  love  that  passeth  knowledge;  a 
God  whom  I  can  love,  must  love;  a  God  who 
saves,  and  who  is  so  anxious  that  His  children 
should  be  in  all  things  what  He  would  have  them, 
that  Himself  suffers  for  their  sins,  becomes  poor 
that  they  may  be  rich,  dies  that  they  may  live. 

In  a  word  Christ  represents  God  to  be  that 
which  we  all  know  and  can  sufficiently  understand 
—  a  Father.  This  is  preeminently  Christ’s  con¬ 
tribution  to  our  knowledge  of  God.  He  has 
brought  back  to  the  human  family  that  knowledge 
which  it  had  lost  —  the  knowledge  of  our  Father 
in  Heaven.  And  therefore  he  is  my  Prophet  of 
God. 

He  affords  the  truest  ideals  of  life.  Others 
have  spoken  wisely  but  he  the  best  of  all.  Oth¬ 
ers  have  given  precepts  but  he  has  given  princi- 


340  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

pies.  Con  over  those  principles  which  he  has 
given  in  this  discourse  as  the  lines  along  which 
the  life  of  man  should  be  lived,  and  does  not  the 
heart  and  mind  see  them  to  be  the  true,  the  per¬ 
fect  way  of  life?  Here  is  life’s  philosophy;  here 
is  life’s  practical  hand-book;  where  will  you  find 
one  to  surpass  it?  Where  will  you  find  one  to 
compare  with  it?  I  know  no  other  who  so  knew 
the  heart  of  man;  who  so  comprehended  the  re¬ 
quirements  of  life;  who  has  spoken  so  aptly  for 
every  stage  and  state  of  our  life.  Therefore  he 
is  the  Prophet  of  Life. 

But  more  than  this,  he  is  the  Prince  of  the 
Prophets  because  of  the  fruits  that  have  been 
borne  by  those  who  have  hid  their  lives  in  him. 
He  has  endured  the  test  of  time.  That  test 
which  causes  the  mountains  to  crumble,  the  na¬ 
tions  to  change,  the  kingdoms  to  vanish  away,  the 
teachings  of  to-day  to  become  the  vagaries  of  to¬ 
morrow;  that  test  which  has  stamped  as  false  so 
much  that  has  been  counted  true;  which  has 
marked  as  evanescent  so  much  that  has  been 
counted  permanent;  that  test  which  the  wise 
Gamaliel  set  for  the  disproving  or  proving  of  the 
Christ;  that  test  Christ  and  his  teachings  have  en¬ 
dured.  The  years  have  gone,  the  centuries  have 
sped  by,  the  Christ  and  his  religion  have  been  tried 
by  criticism,  by  persecution,  by  opposition,  by  ap- 


LIFE’S  WORD  OF  WARNING  341 

proval,  by  experience,  by  life,  and  to-day  is  it  not 
true  that  he  is  the  grandest  figure  that  has  crossed 
the  stage  of  history?  Is  not  this  the  testimony 
of  mankind?  Who  to-day  can  be  compared  with 
the  Christ?  Who  can  be  even  placed  in  the  same 
class  with  him?  Philosophers,  scientists,  histori¬ 
ans,  litterateurs,  philanthropists,  generals,  states¬ 
men,  all  come  to  lay  the  laurels  of  their  tribute, 
if  not  their  worship,  at  his  feet.  Sages,  philoso¬ 
phers  and  prophets,  while  they  may  teach  some¬ 
thing  of  the  spirit  of  his  teaching,  when  they  come 
into  his  presence  it  is  not  to  instruct  but  to  be  in¬ 
structed;  when  they  pass  before  him  it  is  not  to 
receive  homage  but  to  pay  it.  To-day  his  name 
is  above  every  name  that  is  named  on  earth. 

Moreover,  to-day  more  than  at  any  time  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  he  is  the  most  vital  element, 
the  most  beneficent  power  that  is  in  the  society 
of  men.  From  him  have  issued  those  healing 
streams  that  have  cleansed  the  foul  spots  of  earth. 
From  him  has  radiated  the  light  that  has  caused 
to  grow  the  flowers  and  fruits  of  the  beautiful, 
the  blessed  life;  philanthropies,  institutions,  char¬ 
ities  have  sprung  up  in  the  wake  of  his  blessed 
footsteps.  His  is  the  Love  that  has  touched  the 
heart  of  the  beast  and  made  him  into  a  man; 
touched  the  heart  of  the  savage  and  made  him 
into  a  citizen;  touched  the  heart  of  a  man  and 


342  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 
made  him  into  a  god. 

Enter  to-day  into  the  homes  where  peace 
reigns,  and  the  blessed  life  is  found;  ask  who 
hath  done  this  —  will  not  the  answer  be  the 
Christ? 

Enter  the  hospitals  where  the  sick  and  afflicted 
lie  on  their  beds  of  pain,  and  inquire  who  hath 
ministered  to  your  distresses,  and  who  hath  healed 
your  wounds  —  and  will  not  the  answer  be  the 
Christ?  Go  into  the  institutions  for  the  blind 
and  the  deaf.  Inquire  who  hath  founded  these 
—  and  will  not  the  answer  be  the  Christ?  Go 
among  the  settlement  workers  in  our  cities,  and 
ask  them  what  hath  led  them  there  and  what  hath 
kept  them  there  —  and  will  not  the  answer  be  the 
Christ?  Cross  the  seas,  penetrate  the  forests  of 
Africa,  walk  the  streets  of  the  cities  of  Asia, 
pierce  to  the  snow-clad  plains  and  mountains  of 
Alaska,  inquire  of  the  missionaries  there,  for 
there  is  no  spot  of  earth  too  barren,  no  habita¬ 
tion  too  forbidding  for  them  to  dwell  in,  what 
hath  brought  and  kept  them  there  —  and  will  not 
the  answer  be  the  Christ?  As  the  greatest  power 
in  the  world  to-day  is  personality,  so  the  greatest 
personality  in  the  world  is  the  Christ. 

While  I  contemplate  this  human  exponent  of 
the  divine,  the  prophet  of  Nazareth,  I  see  the 
heavens  opened,  I  hear  the  voice  of  God  Himself, 


LIFE’S  WORD  OF  WARNING  343 


saying,  as  He  said  so  many,  many  years  ago, 
“  This  is  my  beloved  son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased,  hear  ye  him.”  And  I  must  reply,  “  O 
Christ!  Thou  art,  and  ever  shalt  be  my  Prophet, 
Priest  and  King.” 


( 


CHAPTER  XXI 


life’s  RELATION  TO  THE  CHRIST 
AND  HIS  RELIGION 
Matt,  vii,  21-29 

THE  discourse  of  the  Teacher  now  draws  to 
its  close;  he  has  made  known  to  his  disciples 
the  constitution  of  the  kingdom  of  God;  he  has  re¬ 
vealed  to  them  the  life  worth  living,  he  has 
accredited  and  established  himself  as  the  Prince 
of  the  Prophets;  it  now  remains  to  press  home 
the  importance  of  the  Teacher  and  his  teachings 
upon  the  disciples.  This  which  we  have  been  con¬ 
sidering  and  are  now  concluding  is  the  Gospel  of 
the  Savior,  this  is  the  way  of  life  our  Master 
taught,  this  is  the  creed  of  the  Christ,  this  is  the 
religion  of  our  Lord. 

The  remainder  of  the  Gospel  record,  that  brief 
and  beautiful  story  of  miracle,  parable  and  oc¬ 
casional  saying,  can  almost  all  if  not  quite  all  of 
them  be  fitted  into  some  one  of  the  great  life 
themes,  here  systematically  expounded.  His  en¬ 
tire  life  is  elaborative  and  illustrative  of  this  dis¬ 
course.  These  are  the  texts  upon  which  his  life 
is  the  sermon. 


344 


LIFE’S  RELATION  TO  CHRIST  345 

As  we  come  to  the  study  of  the  application  of 
this  sermon  by  the  Teacher  himself,  let  us  take 
his  own  words  for  text;  let  us  emerge  from  the 
clouds  of  controversy,  let  us  free  ourselves  from 
the  bondage  of  fixed  opinion,  let  us  approach  this 
passage  for  the  first  time,  let  us  for  once  ask,  not 
what  men  have  said  about  these  words  of  our 
Lord,  but  what  the  words  themselves  say  to  us. 
Let  us  eliminate  the  centuries  with  their  multi¬ 
tudes  of  minds  and  their  myriads  of  interpreta¬ 
tions,  colored  now  by  this,  now  by  that,  motive, 
passion,  controversy;  let  us  for  the  moment  sit 
with  his  disciples,  on  the  side  of  the  Mount,  hear¬ 
ing  this  teaching  of  the  Savior  as  the  disciples 
heard  it;  let  us  look  upon  it  in  its  early  morning 
freshness,  before  the  passing  of  man  has  shaken 
off  the  dew;  then  let  us  inquire,  What  does  he 
here  say  to  me?  What  does  he  here  mean  for 
me  ? 

One  thing  at  this  point  clearly  impresses  itself 
upon  our  thought.  The  Master  has  come  very 
close  to  his  disciples,  he  has  won  their  strictest 
attention,  they  are  fully  aware  that  he  is  now 
speaking  of  the  importance  of  their  right  relation 
to  him  and  to  his  teachings.  This  importance  has 
been  implied  in  every  theme  of  which  he  has 
treated;  this  importance  to  them  underlay  the 
promise  and  warning,  gave  force  to  the  command 


346  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

and  admonition  which  he  has  uttered  in  their 
hearing.  They  could  not  but  be  aware  that  it 
was  not  a  matter  of  indifference  or  even  of  idle 
preference,  but  a  matter  of  transcendent  impor¬ 
tance  to  their  lives  —  these  things  of  which  he 
has  been  speaking.  Has  he  not  spoken  to  them 
of  the  way  of  life,  the  path  of  blessedness,  the 
entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  —  has  he 
not  all  along  implied  that  it  was  a  matter  of  the 
supremest  moment  to  their  well-being  that  they 
should  hear,  and  heed  and  lay  to  heart  this 
heavenly  teaching?  Yea,  they  have  sensed  it 
from  the  beginning  of  his  words,  they  have  felt  it 
increasingly  as  he  advanced  in  his  unfolding  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  now  they  know  the 
importance  of  these  things  that  he  has  been  say¬ 
ing  to  them,  as  they  have  not  known  them  before. 

Christ  in  this  part  of  his  discourse  assumes  a 
new  attitude  toward  his  hearers.  We  can  imag¬ 
ine  a  new  light  in  his  eye,  a  new  tone  in  his  voice, 
a  new  intensity  in  his  manner,  and  a  new  earnest¬ 
ness  of  spirit.  He  is  now  speaking  to  them  from 
a  new  standpoint,  even  that  of  authority  —  his  own 
authority.  We  can  find  evidence  of  this  fact  in 
the  passage  which  now  engages  our  thought. 
Thrice  he  uses  the  expression  “  me,”  thrice  the 
phrase  “  in  my  name,”  twice  the  word  “  mine.” 
It  is  apparent  also  in  that  new  position  which 


LIFE’S  RELATION  TO  CHRIST  347 


he  assumes  and  to  which  he  darkly  yet  distinctly 
alludes  in  the  phrase  “  in  that  day.”  He  has  al¬ 
ready  given  a  far-off  hint  of  “that  day”;  when 
he  was  speaking  of  the  progressive  element  of 
that  Gospel  he  taught,  then  he  said,  “  For  verily 
I  say  unto  you,  till  heaven  and  earth  pass,  one 
jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  from  the 
law,  till  all  be  fulfilled.”  Now  he  makes  a  kin¬ 
dred  but  more  distinct  allusion  to  “  that  day  ” ; 
this  is  clearly,  from  the  pictured  relation  of  man¬ 
kind  to  him,  the  day  of  his  rule,  dominion,  power, 
authority;  that  day  when  his  words  are  the  norm 
of  a  right  life,  and  his  teaching  the  measure  of 
a  man.  And  as  he  speaks  to  his  hearers  on  the 

mountain  side,  he  becomes  transfigured  in  spirit; 

% 

he  sees  that  distant  day  as  though  it  were  pres¬ 
ent;  he  views  that  far-off  consummation  in  the 
ever-present  “now”  of  God’s  accomplishment; 
and  this  which  he  sees  and  feels,  for  the  instant 
his  hearers  sense  and  know  in  his  new  spirit  and 
authority  toward  them.  How  unmistakably  is 
this  revealed  in  the  closing  words  of  the  report 
of  this  sermon,  probably  made  by  one  who  was 
present  at  that  time,  and  who  knew  whereof  he 
spoke,  “  The  people  were  astonished  at  his  doc¬ 
trine  :  for  he  taught  them  as  one  having  authority 
in  himself,  and  not  as  the  scribes.”  Yes,  the  im¬ 
portance  of  these  teachings  and  of  this  Teacher 


348  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

to  mankind  could  not  be  overestimated.  Their 
right  relation  to  him  means  life.  So  it  arises  that 
the  Master  here  tells  his  hearers  what  constitutes 
a  right  relation  to  him,  and  how  it  is  established, 
in  other  words,  in  these  closing  lessons  he  is  speak¬ 
ing  to  his  disciples  on  WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  TRUE 
PROFESSION  OF  FAITH  IN  HIM. 

“  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me  Lord,  Lord, 
shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.”  A  for¬ 
mal  profession  of  him  is  not  enough.  In  these 
words,  “  Not  every  one,”  etc.,  if  language  has 
any  meaning,  the  unqualified  value  of  oral  and 
formal  profession  of  Christ  is  explicitly  denied. 
There  is  ever  and  everywhere  a  tendency  to  ma¬ 
terialize  religion,  to  tie  spiritual  things  to  material 
forms;  to  make  some  rite,  some  ceremonial  ob¬ 
servance,  some  formula  of  words,  the  way  of  sal¬ 
vation,  and  against  this  temptation  to  carnalize 
and  materialize  religion,  throughout  this  great  dis¬ 
course,  Jesus  firmly  sets  his  face,  but  nowhere 
more  clearly,  more  strongly,  more  explicitly  than 
in  these  closing  words.  This  temptation  is  seen 
in  the  heathen  religions  —  indeed,  it  is  the  es¬ 
sential  evil  of  heathenism  and  the  atheistic  ab¬ 
surdity  of  idolatry;  this  tendency  has  its  ample 
evidencing  in  the  Jewish  religion,  where  temple 
service  and  temple  forms  and  priestly  rule  are 
made  to  take  the  place  of  righteousness.  It  is 


LIFE’S  RELATION  TO  CHRIST  349 


against  this  heathenism  in  the  Jewish  religion  that 
prophets  prophesied  and  preachers  preached.  But 
alas !  that  this  same  temptation  should  have  been 
yielded  to  in  that  most  spiritual  religion  which 
the  Christ  founded,  and  yet  such  are  the  facts. 
Note,  that  after  the  death  and  departure  of  Jesus 
this  same  old  tendency  asserted  itself,  and  men 
sought  to  make  religion  to  consist  of  forms,  cere¬ 
monies  and  the  traditions  of  men.  Even  as  the 
Children  of  Israel  relapsed  into  the  idolatries  of 
Egypt  when  their  leader  Moses  had  been  absent 
from  them  but  a  few  days,  so  when  Christ  had 
entered  into  the  heavens,  it  was  not  long  before 
instinctive  materialism  began  to  assert  itself. 
Men  attempted  to  make  the  formalism  of  dogma 
take  the  place  of  the  free  spirit  of  the  living 
Gospel.  They  taught  that  only  those  who  as¬ 
sented  to  a  belief  in  the  Trinity,  or  in  the  im¬ 
maculate  conception,  or  the  foreordination  of 
God,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.,  could  be  saved.  Then  only 
those  wrho  assented  to  a  set  form  of  words,  formu¬ 
lated  by  the  church,  could  have  hopes  of  salva¬ 
tion.  Note  the  Athanasian  creed,  “  This  is  God 
and  man,  God  of  the  substance  of  the  Father, 
begotten  before  the  world,  and  man  of  the  sub¬ 
stance  of  his  mother  born  in  the  world.  Perfect 
God  and  perfect  man.  Equal  to  the  Father  as 
touching  his  Godhead,  and  inferior  to  the  Father 


350  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

as  touching  his  manhood,  who  although  he  be 
God  and  man,  yet  he  is  not  two  but  one  Christ. 
One  not  by  the  conversion  of  the  Godhead  into 

man,  but  by  the  taking  of  the  manhood  into  God 
.  .  .  this  is  the  Catholic  faith  which  except  a  man 
believe  he  cannot  be  saved.”  However  excellent 
this  may  be  as  an  attempt  to  define  the  undefin- 

able,  and  to  comprehend  the  incomprehensible,  it 
is  certainly  absurd  and  contradictory  to  make  it 
a  test  of  a  Christian  life.  How  many  thousands 
have  assented  to  this  creed  to  whose  minds  and 
lives  it  had  no  intelligible  meaning!  Thus  is  sal¬ 
vation  made  to  consist  in  the  apprehension  of  a 
metaphysical  proposition  or  in  the  assent  to  a 
purely  philosophical  tenet. 

Many  a  man  has  been  cast  out  of  the  church 
and  condemned  to  eternal  damnation  because  all 
he  knew  and  could  assent  to  was,  u  I  know 
I  was  blind  and  now  I  see.”  And  even  to¬ 
day  we  have  those  who  pin  a  man’s  salvation  to 
the  fact  of  whether  he  has  in  the  presence  of  the 
congregation  said,  “Lord  —  Lord!” 

But,  says  our  Teacher,  this  is  not  a  distinguish¬ 
ing  mark  of  the  religion  of  Christ.  Not  pro¬ 
fessing,  nor  confessing,  nor  praising,  nor  pretend¬ 
ing  “  with  the  mouth  ”  will  win  a  man  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  or  will  make  a  man  a  fol¬ 
lower  of  Christ. 


LIFE’S  RELATION  TO  CHRIST  351 

Yet  again  we  see  that  the  qualified  value  of 
oral  and  formal  profession  is  not  denied,  but  the 
oral  confession  of  Christ  must  be  put  on  a  new 
and  a  true  basis.  In  other  words,  let  us  put  it 
as  plainly  as  did  our  Lord  —  oral  profession  of 
him  is  not  a  sine  qua  non  to  salvation.  “  He  that 
doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  ”  shall  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  is  our  Lord’s  teaching.  He 
that  “  doeth  these  words  of  mine  ”  builds  a  house 
that  shall  abide.  How  more  clearly  could  this 
truth  be  taught  than  it  is  in  the  parable  of  “  Go 
work  in  my  vineyard,”  recorded  in  Matthew  the 
twenty-first  chapter  and  the  twenty-eighth  through 
the  thirty-second  verses  ?  “  Go  work  in  my  vine¬ 

yard  ”  is  the  command  given  to  the  two  men;  “  I 
go,  sir,”  is  the  commendable  and  clear  assent  of 
the  first;  “  I  will  not,”  is  the  equally  distinct  dis¬ 
sent  of  the  second.  But  later  the  conduct  of  each 
contradicted  the  confession  of  each.  “  Which  of 
these  did  the  will  of  the  Father?  ”  Jesus  makes 
the  application  of  the  parable  himself,  “  Verily  I 
say  unto  you,  that  the  publicans  and  the  harlots  go 
into  the  kingdom  of  God  before  you,”  for  ye  con¬ 
fess  and  do  not  the  will,  while  they  confess  not 
yet  do.  Which  of  these  is  that  profession  of 
Him  he  will  approve?  Verily  he  teaches  his  dis¬ 
ciples  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  We  cannot 
pass  this  teaching  without  adverting  to  that  pas- 


352  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

sage  in  Matthew’s  record,  which  those  who  would 
compel  men  to  say,  “  Lord  —  Lord,”  conjure  by. 
It  runs,  “  Whosoever  therefore  shall  confess  me 
before  men,  him  will  I  confess  also  before  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven.  But  whosoever  shall 
deny  me  before  men,  him  will  I  also  deny  before 
my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.”  As  commonly 
interpreted  this  is  made  to  mean  just  that  which 
the  Lord  himself  here  expressly  denies,  a  verbal, 
oral  confession  of  his  name,  in  public.  Observe 
the  inconsistency  of  the  interpreters;  “  confess  ” 
is  made  to  mean  openly,  orally  and  publicly  “  with 
the  mouth”  to  acknowledge  the  name  of  Jesus; 
but  “  deny  ”  is  not  taken  in  this  sense  but  is  made 
to  mean,  to  refuse  to  acknowledge  in  heart,  spirit 
and  life.  In  other  words,  the  denial  is  made  with 
the  life,  while  the  confession  is  made  with  the 
lips.  Let  both  confession  and  denial  be  made 
with  the  life,  and  we  have,  I  believe,  the  spirit 
of  our  Lord’s  teaching  in  this  present  passage,  in 
the  parable  of  “  Go  work  in  my  vineyard  ”  and  in 
common  sense  and  reason.  The  religion  of 
Jesus  throughout  is  not  a  religion  of  form  but  a 
religion  of  fact;  the  confession  of  Jesus  is  not 
a  confession  in  form  but  a  confession  in  fact,  and 
such  a  confession  alone  is  acceptable  to  our  Lord. 

Yet  the  value  and  necessity  of  an  oral  profes¬ 
sion  of  Christ  has  a  true  basis  on  which  it  rests 


LIFE’S  RELATION  TO  CHRIST  353 

and  on  which  it  should  be  rightly  put.  The  pub¬ 
lic  confession  of  his  name  is  not  a  magic  formula 
by  which  a  man  is  to  be  saved,  but  is  the  natural 
acknowledgment  of  a  loving  heart.  A  true  man 
will  want  to  acknowledge  his  name.  A  grateful 
heart  will  desire  to  express  its  gratitude  to  his 
Savior.  It  is  the  right  and  reasonable  thing  for 
a  man  to  acknowledge  that  one  by  whom  he  is 
saved  and  in  whom  he  lives.  And  as  the  pro¬ 
fession  of  his  name  should  be  made  primarily  for 
the  sake  of  the  Christ,  because  it  is  his  due,  so 
likewise  sound  wisdom  shows  that  it  is  the  best 
thing  for  a  man  to  do  for  his  own  sake.  Jesus 
in  this  discourse  has  shown  the  fatality  and  folly 
of  double-mindedness,  of  a  divided  life;  he  has 
taught  the  wisdom  and  strength  of  singleness  of 
purpose.  To  come  out  fairly  and  squarely  and  ac¬ 
knowledge  that  we  are  on  the  Lord’s  side  strength¬ 
ens  a  man,  gives  him  stability,  hedges  him  with 
protection,  helps  him  on  his  way.  But  still  fur¬ 
ther,  that  man  who  believes  in  Christ,  that  man 
who  would  live  the  life  Christ  would  have  him 
live,  who  would  be  of  service  to  his  fellows  and 
the  kingdom,  must  publicly  confess  his  Lord,  for 
his  fellows’  sake,  and  for  the  sake  of  the  king¬ 
dom,  else  refusing  to  do  this  little  great  thing 
let  him  cease  to  pray,  u  Thy  kingdom  come,  thy 
will  be  done.”  Reasons  enough  can  be  adduced 


354  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

without  resorting  to  superstition,  why  a  man 
should  publicly  and  formally  acknowledge  his 
Lord  and  Savior. 

Nor  is  a  superstitious  practice  and  a  formal  pre¬ 
tension  living  in  right  relation  to  Christ,  as  he 
teaches  his  disciples  in  the  twenty-second  verse  of 
this  chapter.  Preaching  and  wonder-working  in 
his  name  is  not  doing  his  will.  Observe  the  three¬ 
fold  repetition  of  the  phrase  “  in  thy  name,”  giv¬ 
ing  the  impression  of  a  cabalistic  form.  No  par¬ 
tial,  spiritless,  formal,  heathenish  observance  of 
the  law  will  suffice.  No  literal,  heartless  keep¬ 
ing  of  Sabbath  days,  holy  days,  doing  of  pietistic 
works,  is  inculcated  in  his  teachings.  To  say,  “  I 
used  thy  name  four  hundred  times  last  Sunday, 
and  repeated  forty  ‘  Pater  Nosters  ’  while  pass¬ 
ing  the  church,”  is  not  Christ’s  idea  of  living  a 
holy  life.  IT  such  he  will  say,  u  Depart  from 
me,”  because  ye  are  not  of  me  nor  in  me,  nor  I 
truly  in  you.  u  Ye  have  the  form  of  godliness  but 
deny  the  power  thereof.” 

“  Depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity,”  sig¬ 
nifies  that  the  daily  trend  of  the  life  is  not  in  ac¬ 
cord  with  the  superstitious  religion  of  the  moment. 
“  Depart  from  me,”  ye  that  serve  me  with  the 
little  finger  and  yourselves  with  the  whole  hand. 
Ye  that  put  your  bodies  into  my  service  and  your 
whole  heart  and  soul  into  lawlessness.  All  life 


LIFE’S  RELATION  TO  CHRIST  355 

is  to  be  holy  and  all  living  is  to  be  sacred,  and 
the  leaven  of  the  religion  of  Christ  is  to  leaven 
the  whole  lump  of  life. 

As  Jesus  explicitly  denies  the  unqualified  value 
of  a  formal  profession  of  him,  so  he  expressly 
affirms  the  unqualified  worth  of  a  real  and  vital 
profession  of  him  and  of  his  religion.  “  He 
that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father,”  “  Every  one 
that  heareth  and  doeth  these  words  of  mine,”  are 
the  form  in  which  he  teaches  his  disciples  what 
constitutes  a  real  profession.  A  vital  relation  to 
Christ  alone  suffices;  the  theme  of  the  entire  ser¬ 
mon  is  life,  life  on  all  its  sides,  in  all  its  relations; 
the  emphasis  is  ever  laid  on  the  heart  and  soul 
life;  the  constant  call  throughout  the  entire  dis¬ 
course  is  action!  —  action!!  action!!!  In  these 
words  a  warning  is  given  to  the  people,  as  in  the 
words  of  the  last  section  a  warning  was  given  to 
the  teachers.  “  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them.”  Here  he  says  by  their  fruits  I  shall  know 
them.  The  fruit  is  the  test  of  Christ’s  own  life 
—  this  is  to  be  the  test  of  the  lives  of  those  who 
profess  him.  This  is  the  import  of  the  parable 
of  The  Branch  and  the  Vine.  Anything  short  of 
walking  this  way  is  insufficient;  “  saying”  is  con¬ 
trasted  with  “doing”;  “hearing”  is  contrasted 
with  “doing”;  and  only  those  who  do  shall  be 
approved.  The  doer  of  his  will  is  he  that  pro- 


356  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 
fesses  his  name. 

The  religion  of  Christ  consists  in  doing  the  will 
of,  having  the  spirit  of,  walking  the  way  of, 
Christ  in  all  our  lives.  “  What  must  I  do  to  be 
saved?  ”  asks  man  of  man,  and  man  answers  as¬ 
sent  to  the  Athanasian  or  to  some  other  creed. 
“  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?  ”  asks  a  man  of 
the  Christ  and  he  answers  to  the  lawyer,  and  to 
the  rich  young  ruler,  and  to  his  disciples  here, 
“  Hear  and  do  these  words  of  mine.”  In  other 
words,  true  belief  in  Christ  is  not  belief  alone  in 
the  historical  Christ  but  belief  in  the  spiritual 
Christ.  It  is  not  to  believe  that  one  called  Jesus 
lived  in  Palestine  two  thousand  years  ago,  and 
there  taught  a  Gospel  of  gladness,  and  worked 
miracles  of  healing,  afterwards  dying  a  violent 
death  on  the  cross.  It  is  not  enough  to  have 
known  Christ  after  the  flesh  even;  in  this  sense 
the  rulers  of  the  temple,  the  scribes  and  the  Phari¬ 
sees  knew  him  better  than  we  can  ever  know  him, 
and  yet  they  received  his  denunciation  and  woe 
because  they  “  did  not  know  him.” 

To  believe  Christ  is  to  believe  in  his  way  of 
life,  with  the  belief  of  a  life  doing  his  way. 
He  believes  in  food  who  eats  it;  he  believes  in 
water  who  drinks  it;  he  believes  in  knowledge  who 
follows  it;  he  believes  in  Christ  who  lives  him. 
Plainly  can  we  see  that  this  Christ  life  manifests 


LIFE’S  RELATION  TO  CHRIST  357 

itself  in  a  thousand  forms  and  peoples  and  na¬ 
tions,  who  have  never  known  our  creed  and  who 
have  never  followed  our  forms.  In  other  words, 
“  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  him  and  work- 
eth  righteousness  is  accepted  with  him,”  and  the 
religion  of  Christ  is  far  broader  than  many  to-day 
would  admit. 

The  Master  concludes  this  remarkable  dis¬ 
course  to  his  disciples  with  the  use  of  the  figure 
of  the  two  builders  and  the  two  buildings.  In 
this  he  reveals  to  his  hearers  that  the  right  rela¬ 
tion  to  Christ  and  his  teachings  assures  that  one 
who  has  it  of  a  true  and  abiding  life.  Again  the 
Teacher  directs  his  hearers’  attention  to  the  im¬ 
portance  of  these  teachings  to  their  lives,  “  These 
words  of  mine,”  these  words  to  which  you  have 
just  listened,  are  the  standard  of  right  living, 
these  point  the  way  to  the  way  of  blessedness,  to 
the  formation  of  that  character  which  shall  abide. 
But  hearing  these  words  is  not  enough,  the  con¬ 
dition  of  right  living  is  “  hearing  and  doing  ” 
them.  He  teaches  at  this  point  what  he  taught 
his  disciples  at  a  later  time,  “  If  ye  know  these 
things  happy  are  ye  if  ye  do  them.”  And  then 
he  concludes  with  a  brief  reference  to  the  resylt 
of  living  after  this  manner,  and  a  brief  allusion 
to  the  result  of  forsaking  the  principles  here 
taught.  The  distributive  phrases  “  every  one,” 


358  THE  LIFE  WORTH  LIVING 

“  not  every  one  ”  and  “  liken  unto  a  man,”  show 
us  that  this  opportunity  and  this  obligation  is  per¬ 
sonal  and  individual.  There  is  no  shirking  of 
this  responsibility,  there  is  no  warrant  for  com¬ 
missioning  church  or  saint  to  do  for  me  that  which 
I  only  can  do  for  myself.  That  man  who  will 
hear  these  words,  who  will  heed  them,  who  will 
follow  them  is  a  “  wise  man,”  a  man  who  chooses 
the  better  way,  and  a  man  who  builds  to  abide. 
Moreover,  a  man  who  takes  this  for  his  pattern, 
these  for  his  principles  of  life,  is  a  man  whose  life 
is  safe  and  who  shall  endure.  His  life  is  rightly 
founded  on  a  permanent,  unchanging  base.  He 
rests  upon  a  rock,  even  the  rock  Christ  Jesus.  He 
is  that  man  who  goes  to  the  foundation  of  things, 
that  man,  to  use  Luke’s  phrase,  “  who  digged  and 
went  deep.”  This  is  the  man  who  builds  upon 
that  foundation  to  wdiich  Paul  refers  when  he 
says,  “  Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that 
is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ.”  1  The  life  of  this 
builder,  the  house  in  which  he  dwells,  like  all 
earthly  things,  must  be  subjected  to  the  test  of 
time,  and  tried  by  the  storms  of  existence.  This 
is  .the  lot  of  every  life,  this  is  the  fate  of  every 
man  —  his  building  shall  be  tried  on  every  side 
—  the  rain  shall  test  it  from  above,  the  wind  from 
about,  the  floods  from  beneath  —  but  it  shall  not 

!I  Cor.  iii,  ii. 


LIFE’S  RELATION  TO  CHRIST  359 


fall,  and  the  life  that  is  built  on  this  foundation, 
and  has  these  principles  of  the  Master  Workman 
built  into  it,  shall  abide  forever. 

The  sermon  is  ended;  the  curriculum  for  the 
training  of  the  disciples  is  finished;  the  best  ma¬ 
terial  for  the  construction  of  a  home  is  furnished. 

I  am  sure  that  he  who  hears  and  heeds  these 
great  principles  of  the  religion  of  Christ,  these 
golden  rules  of  the  Life  Worth  Living,  knows 
the  true  philosophy  of  right  living,  and  stands  at 
the  center  of  the  unchanging  theology.  Here  are 
the  materials  for  every  builder  of  a  home  —  the 
foundation  Rock;  the  beams  and  stringers  of 
sound  principle  —  the  embellishment  and  adorn¬ 
ment  of  heavenly  precept. 

Rise  then !  O  Christian  workman,  appropriate 
that  which  God  hath  given,  build  the  house  Beau¬ 
tiful,  the  habitation  Blessed,  and  the  Home  which 
is  eternal. 


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